Are Wider Wheels Safer?
Man from Essex complains about Mercedes aquaplaning claims
The recent batch of adjudictions from the Advertising Standards Authority included one relating to a Mercedes advert promoting wider wheels on their cars.
The advertisement showed a picture of a stationary vehicle and stated "GRIPPING FACT No 1: Wider wheels 14.6% more tyre on the road. So now you can feel 14.6% safer".
The complainant, who believed that wider wheels on a vehicle could cause it to aqua-plane, objected that the advertisement implied that wider wheels were safer.
In their defence, Mercedes sent an explanation from a leading tyre manufacturer of the factors that affected grip. It stated that the footprint and tread of a tyre affected grip. The advertisers explained that aqua-planing occurred when there was a build-up of water in front of a tyre and that that occurred when a tyre was unable to displace the water ahead of it sufficiently; that depended on footprint and more importantly the tread of the tyre.
The Authority didn't buy that though and considered that readers of the advert would infer that the wheels on the advertisers' cars were 14.6% safer than other wheels. Because the advertisers had not sent evidence that the wheels were 14.6% safer, the Authority concluded that the claim was misleading. The Authority asked the advertisers not to make the same the claim again.
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