Tame Toyota GR Yaris Advert Banned For Promoting 'Unsafe Driving'
The above Toyota advert featuring the new GR Yaris (and a Celica, briefly) may look tame, but not everyone saw it that way. Australia’s Advertising Standards Bureau has stepped in following one or more complaints that claim “the commercial promotes speeding and may influence people to speed which is very dangerous”.
Specifically, the 30-second video supposedly fell foul of two parts of the Federal Chamber for Automotive Industries Motor Vehicle Advertising Code: ‘unsafe driving’ and ‘breaking the speed limit’.
In response, Toyota insisted it merely wanted “to show the Yaris’s versatility across a range of Australian road types”. The company added, “Toyota takes the opinion of the complainant very seriously. However, it is our belief that the Advertisement does not contravene the FCAI Code or the applicable laws and regulations that govern community roads and driving standards.”
Following a review, the ASB decided that the advert did not contravene the ‘breaking the speed limit’ part of the rules, but it did promote ‘unsafe driving’ due to that brief bit of dusty wheelspin. “The Panel considered that the action of losing traction in the rear of the vehicle would be considered to be a loss of control of the vehicle,” the report says.
As a result, Toyota cannot show the advert in its current form and has “taken steps” to edit it, which presumably involved removing the offending powerslide.
Stringent car advertising rules aren’t exclusive to Australia, it’s worth pointing out. The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority frequently swings the ban hammer over here, sometimes after only a single complaint.
After a Ford Mustang advert was brought to its attention a couple of years ago via 12 complaints, the ASA deemed it to be showing “driving as a way of relieving anger,” and even took issue with the use of the Dylan Thomas poem ‘Do not go gentle into that goodnight’.
Source: Advertising Standards Beureu via Car Expert
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Wow, they’d have a heart attack reviewing American car ads. And I mean he was working on a rally car in the garage so his powerslide was very tame.
Say it with me, kids: Nanny. State.
I was expecting some street racing like in the Dodge Penzoil ads.
This is just “oops gave a little too much gas on a low friction surface”
It looks like a private road whats all this about
Oh, I don’t think so. I don’t think that would promote dangerous driving at all. Each driver knows what they were doing when driving, for N-sake. It just shows the car’s capability. Maybe there’s should be ‘this stunt was done by professionals - don’t try this at home’ message at the point the dude in the GR Yaris flick-spin the car just to let everyone know the stunt could be lethal, not cutting the part out of the ad. I don’t even think all people who drove GR Yarises would drive like a total berserk on the road, only some would.
The US Hellcat ads would cause a stroke there.
Sooo… Doing a short powerslide, on gravel, on your own property is now considered dangerous…?
What average age do they even think the UK population has, 5?