The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a promotional tweet by Land Rover, calling it ‘irresponsible’ for solely focusing on a vehicle’s speed and acceleration.
The post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, featured an image of an individual wearing sunglasses in a barren landscape, standing in front of a blurred image of the rear of a car that had made a dust trail.
Alongside the advert, the text read: “Fashionably late is out of fashion. Because 0-60mph in 3.6 seconds can look like this. #RangeRoverSportSV”.
Challenged by the ASA for promoting the car’s speed, Jaguar Land Rover responded that the ad’s primary focus was on the style of the brand, rather than the speed.
Pointing out the image had been taken on a closed track on private land and the vehicle had been travelling at 20mph, they claimed the dust cloud was because “the surface of the track was extremely dusty”.
Other explanations for the advert included that the whole background’s blur did not “imply that the vehicle was travelling at speed”, and the message “fashionably late is out of fashion” was supposedly intended to suggest that consumers should avoid being late to avoid speeding.
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Yet, the ASA upheld the challenges, claiming that the ad suggested drivers could rapidly accelerate and travel at speed to ensure they would not be late.
The ASA added, “We conclude that the ad made speed and acceleration the main message of the ad”.
“The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Jaguar Land Rover Ltd to ensure their ads did not make speed and acceleration the main message of their ads in future.”
It is not the first time Jaguar Land Rover Ltd has been cautioned about misleading adverts.
In February 2022 ASA told the car brand to remove adverts that were ‘misleading about the functionality of their parking sensor features‘, in an advert that saw Land Rover reverse parking on the edge of a cliff.
Earlier this year, Land Rover launched a considerably more successful advert, announcing it was set to sponsor ITV’s coverage of the upcoming Rugby World Cup game.
