A Toyota newspaper ad has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for condoning and encouraging ‘unsafe or irresponsible driving’.
The ad, that appeared in The Guardian and i newspapers in April and May of this year, included an image of three cars driving close together along a country road, with the headline ‘That GR Feeling’.
Towards the bottom of the ad it read: “Precise. Balanced. Playful. It’s this elusive combination that delivers the heart-pumping excitement of the Toyota GR Series. Pure performance cars, born from Toyota Gazoo Racing. And now on a road near you.”
Three complainants, including the Worthing Green Party, contacted the advertising watchdog to challenge whether the ‘irresponsible’ ad inspired driving behaviour that was dangerous.
People recognised that the Toyota GR Series vehicles were “capable of delivering a performance based on speed and an element of risk”.
READ MORE: Too far! Top six most outrageous ads banned this year
Toyota responded to the claims by arguing that people would read the ‘GR’ in the headline phonetically, associating it with the model of the vehicles and not the purring sound of a high-performance engine.
The car manufacturer also believed that the phrase ‘that feeling’ was used commonly in ads and referred to a feeling of enjoyment as opposed to driving recklessly fast.
The brand claimed that the words ‘playful’ and ‘heart pumping excitement’ were not references to irresponsible driving, and that the cars should not have been interpreted as racing on a public road.
Nevertheless, the ASA ruled that the poster must not appear in the same form and that Toyota should not ‘condone or encourage unsafe driving’ in future advertisements.
The authority added: “We considered that the overall impression created by the ad was a suggestion that the high performance nature of GR Series vehicles meant that drivers of those vehicles could push the boundaries of safe and responsible driving and that it was desirable and enjoyable to do so.”
“We concluded that in so doing the ad condoned and encouraged unsafe or irresponsible driving.”
Click here to sign up to Marketing Beat’s free daily email newsletter
