Audi R18: PH Ad Break

Audi's Le Mans winner on the school run in German TV ad

We've already celebrated Audi's clever play on daft advertising regs with its rather wonderful R8 advert. Well, here's another for the RS6 that'd definitely fall foul of our regulatory nannies.

Forget the Zafira, this WOULD be daddy cool

On the face of it transposing the Terminator-esque R18 E-Tron Quattro Le Mans racer into everyday driving situations like the school run, daily commute or after-hours 'lifestyle' sportiness is a cool way of getting that motorsport Vorsprung Durch Technik message out there.

But even this seemingly benign twist on the race on Sunday, sell on Monday ethos that's underpinned car marketing from the very first days of the automobile wouldn't get past censors who'd make Mary Whitehouse's National Viewers' and Listeners' Association seem like a bunch of free-thinking libertarians. Why? "There should be no suggestion that competitive sport has been used in the development of increased power, speed etc in road cars" says section 11.9.2 of the BCAP Television Advertising Code.

Now, those of us of a more pedantic bent could argue there's naff-all technology transfer between the R18's diesel hybrid powertrain and the RS6's V8 petrol motor and the ad could run. Picking a lazy stereotype purely for the purposes of illustrating an example - honest - if the advert had depicted a diesel powered A6 with its LED headlights inches off the bumper of a Prius in the Autobahn fast lane that'd have really shown how endurance racing imitates life on the roads.

Well, it's got LED lights a bit like the racer

Actually, carried off with a bit of self deprecating humour that'd make quite an amusing ad. 'Self deprecating humour' probably isn't in the Audi marketing lexicon though and nor, sadly, will cool ads like this featuring racing cars bombing around town centres be seen on British TV any time soon. But you can watch it here!