Huawei uploaded an image to its Google+ account and the caption could be said to mislead one into assuming that the image was snapped by the P9‘s dual camera lenses. Though not explicitly stated, the sentence, “The #HuaweiP9’s dual Leica cameras makes taking photos in low light conditions like this a pleasure.” could be misread to mean that the P9 took the picture in question.

The image in question along with the metadata

We managed to catch a beautiful sunrise with Deliciously Ella. The #HuaweiP9’s dual Leica cameras makes taking photos in low light conditions like this a pleasure. Reinvent smartphone photography and share your sunrise pictures with us. #OO — Huawei’s post on the image.

What the company did not bank on was that someone on the internet would go and pull the EXIF data from the image and rebuke it. EXIF data can reveal a lot of information of the image, and thanks to Google’s policy on retaining that data, the information paints a very different picture. The image was captured using a Canon EOS 5D Mark III with an EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens. The picture was then further fine-tuned using Adobe Photoshop CC on a Mac by an employee named Bryan Sheffield. A set-up that costs well over $4000, for which you can buy enough Huawei P9’s for your family.

The metadata released clearly painted Huawei as partaking in deceptive marketing and for cheating consumers emotions into believing that such an image is possible with the P9. Huawei responded to the EXIF data and the subsequent questioning by releasing a statement on Google+ and subsequently removing the image as well.

It has recently been highlighted that an image posted to our social channels was not shot on the Huawei P9. The photo, which was professionally taken while filming a Huawei P9  advert, was shared to inspire our community. We recognise though that we should have been clearer with the captions for this image. It was never our intention to mislead. We apologise for this and we have removed the image.

Though the statement is factual — Huawei never claimed the image was taken on the P9, it discounts for the company’s role in promoting an ambiguous sentence.

Do you agree with Huawei that it was just a mistake or do you think this is a marketing ploy to have everyone talking about the P9?