The Advertising Standards Authority has had to deal with complaints from a disgruntled public about press and poster work from Hyundai and MG Rover this week.
Leagas Delaney's poster for the Hyundai Coupe, headlined "Disappears quicker than a dot.com", breached ASA codes despite the advertiser's protest that the emphasis on humour should let it off the hook.
The ad shows a car travelling round a bend, with its back wheels and the surrounding landscape
blurred.
The ASA was not impressed by Hyundai's insistence that the ad does not encourage irresponsible driving and that it was designed to demonstrate the car's modernity by associating it with a contemporary social comment. The complaints were upheld.
MG Rover, which was in trouble for a direct mail campaign last month, escaped censure from the ASA this week despite public complaints about a
national press ad showing a stationary Rover 25 surrounded by drawings of work boots and a running shoe.
The ad features the caption, "The Rover 25's aluminium engine is lighter. So it accelerates faster than the competition."
But the ASA was satisfied that Rover's claim is made in the context of its lightweight aluminium engine and does not encourage speeding. Another line in the ad, claiming that the car is "faster 0-60 mph than the Fiesta and Corsa" was also considered legitimate as a standard measure of driving performance.
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