Hyundai reprimanded for breaching Australian road rules in car commercial
The ad watchdog has reprimanded Hyundai for breaking the Australian road rules in an ad which shows a woman sitting in a car while it is being towed.
The 15 second television commercial shows a woman sitting in a car with her seatbelt on smiling and waving, as the camera zooms out it is revealed she is sitting in her car while it is being moved on a tow truck.
A complaint posted to Ad Standards pointed out the ad shows illegal road behaviour.
Responding to the complaint, Hyundai said the ads have a “humorous” and “light-hearted” tone and is drawing on the excitement felt when purchasing a new car.
“The advertisements are not intended to be taken literally and a reasonable viewer will understand that the advertisements are dealing with the emotion of quickly wanting to buy a new car to take advantage of an attractive offer,” Hyundai said.
Despite Hyundai’s justification, Ad Standards said the ad was “not clearly humour or fantasy, as the behaviour would be possible”.
Upholding the complaint, Ad Standards said the ad portrays driving practices which are unsafe and that would breach any Commonwealth law”.
I was just wondering who in the general public knew that it is illegal to be in a vehicle that is being towed.
What are the odds that a rival car maker or their agency logged the complaint?
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Not sure where the producer was in this process? How about FreeTV doing a pre-check or approving it? There are a few checks and measures that haven’t been working to protect this brand it seems.
How about some quick fixes to get this back on air quickly? Surely a ‘Do not do this at home’-type super would get this through and back on air without throwing the whole thing away? (Creatives can be tempted to think this is ‘wrecking the whole thing’, but there’s a time to be pragmatic when so much expense and missed media is at stake)
Not as bad as it seems….
@JustWondering – I agree that the competitor may well have done this, but surely it backfired as this press may well get sympathetic followers thinking that people are over-thinking here. Some good press worth more than the hassles probably.
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