New car adverts - what's allowed?
New car adverts - what's allowed?
Author
Discussion

zcacogp

Original Poster:

11,239 posts

260 months

Friday 25th February 2011
quotequote all
Chaps,

I seem to have seen a number of car adverts recently that have told me nothing at all about the cars being advertised. In fact, there is a fiesta advert that we saw the other evening which we watched, and at the end of it Mrs zcacogp turned to me and asked "Was that an advert for a car?" I honestly can't remember the advert, but do faintly recall a crushed-raspberry pink fiesta appearing sometime towards the end of it ...

Ones that I can remember I remember for their dire awfulness. The Kia 4x4 advert, where the man of the house is driving it to a rap song, with rappers in the car, and his wife asks whether he bought the nappies is a case in point. (I notice there is a thread running elsewhere on here saying that it is actually quite a good car.) Another one saying something about not living your life in a box. A volvo advert showing a black panther jumping into the back of a car. A Land Rover advert showing changing scenes through the windscreen of the car. All of them seem to be about image, lifestyle and general impression - nothing to do with the cars themselves, what they can do or how they work.

I am presuming this is because car adverts are heavily constrained in terms of what they can and cannot say. Does anyone know what the regulations are, and whether they have changed recently?


Oli.

Mustardo

95 posts

174 months

Friday 25th February 2011
quotequote all
I don't think there has been a decent car ad since the Honda 'cog' one.

BTW what man drives a pink Fiesta?

mrmr96

13,736 posts

220 months

Friday 25th February 2011
quotequote all
zcacogp said:
I am presuming this is because car adverts are heavily constrained in terms of what they can and cannot say.
Yeah, I think there's a rule about not 'glamorising speed' or some other nonsense.

Pints

18,448 posts

210 months

Friday 25th February 2011
quotequote all
Mustardo said:
BTW what man drives a pink Fiesta?
Do NOT make me post that picture. Yes, you know the one.

wink

mrmr96

13,736 posts

220 months

Friday 25th February 2011
quotequote all
Pints said:
Do NOT make me post that picture. Yes, you know the one.

wink
Yes, we all know which one. There's no need to do it.

Benny Saltstein

723 posts

229 months

Friday 25th February 2011
quotequote all
See here. Regulated by the ASA:

http://tinyurl.com/5thkxys

Basically anything which hints at speed, danger, anything exciting.

skip_1

3,496 posts

206 months

Friday 25th February 2011
quotequote all
Cars are 'econoboxes' to most, they are actively trying to sell the lifestyle of having that particular car over another.