Holden Heist ad taken off air because of dangerous turn
Ad Standards has ordered an ad for Holden’s range of sports utility vehicles be taken off air to remove scenes of unsafe driving.
The Hollywood heist-style ad shows the Equinox making a fast, backwards 180-degree turn to evade motorcyclists in a shipping yard, a move that attracted the attention of the complainant.
The ad is part of a wider campaign for Holden’s SUV range, which told the story of a group stealing an artwork from a country house and using various Holden SUVs to evade their pursuers.
One complainant to the ASB said: “In my opinion it would qualify for a loss of licence under the current hoon laws and the vehicle impounded. Quite an inappropriate ad in today’s climate of road safety.”
Ad Standards rules say car ads cannot show unsafe or reckless driving practices.
In its response, Holden stated that the driving techniques used were meant to reflect a Hollywood action film and were not meant to be copied by consumers.
“The driving scenes deliberately leverage cliché, Hollywood environments and actions to help our audience quickly understand that this Advertisement is designed to look like a movie trailer, rather than a depiction of real life events,” the response said.
“The advertisement was at all times filmed under controlled conditions by trained and experienced professionals. There was no unaccounted-for traffic, or any other potential obstacle present at any point during filming.”
In coming to a decision the Panel noted that the 180 degree turn would be illegal on a road.
It also noted during that scene the ad featured the disclaimer “Filmed under controlled conditions. Expert driver used” for three seconds, however this does not justify the inclusion of material that does not comply with the Ad Standards Code.
Subsequently, the panel ruled that the ad was in breach of the Code and that Holden would have to remove the scenes of the 180 degree turn from the ad .
In Holden’s response it stated: “This scene appears in a wide range of Holden’s TV and online advertising and as such we will update the advertisement to create an updated version where the 180-degree turn is removed. We are working urgently through a plan with our broadcast partners to remove the current version of this advertisement from all environments including TV, online and social media.”
The offending scene in the standalone Equinox ad also appears 35 seconds into 60 second brand ad.
In October 2018, Ad Standards upheld a complaint about a Volkswagen ad that featured real and animated scenes of its Amarok model overtaking a road train on a dirt road.
Oh, FFS.
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Does art imitate life or is it the other way around? The truth is that they variously copy each other.
Did anyone complain that the ad promotes art theft? Did anyone complain that there is a threat to human safety even before the driving scenes, or that the entire story is extremely unlikely to be factual?
This is a fictional story featuring a car, a story written, produced, directed, acted, and shot to a style which is truthful and realistic, but absolutely not real. Why do some people ( important people it seems) fail to grasp the very obvious fact, that this is art and not reality?
If you believe that viewing this ad and/or buying this car will encourage you to drive like a maniac, then you must also believe that buying this car will make you an art thief.
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Ditto
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Who complained about this ad?
Who sits there watching TV and sees an ad like this and thinks “Oh, that’s a bit dangerous. I should complain”.
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Now I know why I left Oz !!! god what a nanny state !!
Sorry Holden !!
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Probably the same bod from the Pedestrian Council of Australia who usually complains about car TV ads…
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Who is more pathetic? The twat who complained or the one at the AS who actually took it seriously???
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The whole concept of the ad surrounds heist. Did any complaints suggest the TVC should come down due to potentially encouraging holden drivers to engage in high end art theft?
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I want to go back to the days where there was no such thing as being PC and no one took life too seriously.
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@MattyB
Ford’s corporate affairs team
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The only thing worse than the stupid complaint in this story is the inevitability of someone commenting on this story as “PC GONE MAD”! If this is about ‘political correctness’ then it just goes to show that ‘political correctness’ is an utterly meaningless expression. Find a different way of expressing your frustration. Try not to just harp on about “PC” as though that means your point is made.
And as to the other comment above about it being the “nanny state”, I doubt that person realises ad standards is a self-regulatory arrangement? The “state” isn’t involved.
Go do some research.
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Oh, FFS
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