A television ad for Dyson's smallest vacuum cleaner has been banned after a watchdog found it misled viewers over the product's space-saving credentials.

The ad showed the extension tube or 'wand' being compacted before the vacuum cleaner was seen, without the wand or hose, being placed on a shelf in a cupboard.

A voice-over said: "So there you have it, the smallest, quietest Dyson Ball vacuum."

A viewer complained that the ad misleadingly implied that the extension tube and hose could be folded away into the product when they understood this was not the case.

Dyson said the shot of one part of the wand sliding into the other showed it was made of two large parts and did not slide into the body of the machine.

It said that, as with all their cylinder machines, the hose and wand were removable for easy storage, and its products were often displayed with the hose and wand disconnected.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) noted the ad included a scene which demonstrated how part of the wand collapsed into itself immediately followed by the final scene which showed the body of the machine being placed on a small shelf.

It said: "We considered that viewers would understand from this sequence that one of the advantages of the machine was that it could be stored in a small place and considered that, unless shown otherwise, viewers would understand this to mean that this storage involved the machine in its entirety, including the hose and wand.

"We therefore considered that consumers would understand from these final scenes that the wand and hose collapsed down further than shown and that it was possible for them to be collapsed down into the body of the machine.

"Because this was not the case, we concluded that the ad was misleading."

It ruled that the ad should not appear again in its current form.