On the HJ homepage there is an article about the ASA upholding a complaint against Rover.
One person had complained that the advert for the MG "conveyed a car travelling fast, objected that they placed an undue emphasis on speed and encouraged irresponsible driving".
What is the world coming to when one person in the UK out of a population of 60 million or so can make a complaint (which many would consider spurious) causing an advertising campaign probably costing millions to be pulled?
Utterly ridiculous and my sympathies go to Rover who are only trying to sell a good British product and keep people in this country in jobs.
Dave
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Couldn't agree more as most cars can easily do more than 70mph. I guess this is the country we live in now where a vocal minority (of one this time) can dictate to the majority.
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And not only lose the millions from advertising. but multi millions from lost sales.
But I suppose that the job losses will only be in thousands, or perhaps even hundreds.
So that's alright then.
Should not the complainant and the ASA have to compensate under human rights?
And does the ASA actually have anyn power?
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what about the new advert for the Civic Type R? ... BYE BYE GTI ... surely that is worse?
Andrew
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What is the betting it some sandal wearing swampy type Guardian reader who is aware that they can get virtually any car advert banned that suggests that driving is "good".
You can bet your life it won't be the last you hear of this, similar thing happened to the Volvo (S40?) advert recently.
It's as John Cleese says, how can you live in a free society and have "freedom" or be allowed personal expression, when you have to live your life by the person with the most sensitive nature who is incapable of controlling their own feelings?
So basically it is okay for various tobacco companies to continue to advertise, but poor old Rover who are desperately trying to get back on their feet (and making a pretty good job of doing it), despite idiots (not the word I would have liked to use) like this. Are they real? Who on earth could possibly be offended by that advert!
It's beyond me...
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Seems a bit unfair that a single complaint can do this, but the adverts do seem to encourage you to drive faster.
Perhaps they should have been done for being misleading - the roads are so full these days that you'd be hard pushed to find somewhere to actually exploit the performance of these cars.
BTW, is it just me or do the new MG's look like something from Max Power magazine? The little 200 based one looks particularily tragic in yellow....
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Have a look at their website at ASA.org.uk, send them an E mail like I did.
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Lee - I drive a Rover 218is (a pre-facelift 25) and it's a fine drive. The ZR160 appeals to me, but if only it didn't look like a MaxPower dream car!
If I could specify 'no rear spoiler, no deep skirts' etc I might be tempted....
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I agree.
Is it possible to get a black ZR160 then retro-fit the single unit headlamps and saw off the spoiler.
I think there'd be a good market for a silly fast car that didn't scream boy-racer at you. MG seem to not give you the option.
Might start a new industry swapping sports seats for comfortable velour ones, suspension lifting and softening, window-undarkening and replacing carbon-fibre dashboards with plastic...,
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Don't moan. Complain. Thanks to Alyn Beattie I've installed a link in the news item to the ASA site which has a complaints form. Only problem is I haven't been able to check the link because, not surprisingly, the ASA's server has a hang-up.
HJ
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i) is the name/address of the complainant in the public domain ?
ii) was the hearing fair and just, was any opposing views aired, were journalists allowed into the kangaroo court they were running to make this decision ?
iii) how are people appointed to the ASA, and its panels ? another of tony's quangos no doubt staffed up by the chattering labour ruling classes (who mainly all seem to have gone to public school and know as little about the roots of the labour party as my little finger)
iv) was any kind of public feedback invited ?
v) did anyone survey people to see if the advert "invited them to speed"
vi) speed can be safe! since when was driving fast illegal/to be discouraged, 70 is legal and often safe on a motorway, and 70 is very much in the public interest beacuse these cars keep the country going, and keep our business/industrial world working
VERY VERY upset by this abuse of process by a small minority of the population, this is NOT democracy
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As far as I remember 16(?) people complained about the 'speed' aspect of MG's ad. No doubt they were all members of hand-wringing, Guardian reading, Yoghurt-eating 'green groups'.
But a lot more than this complained about a WWF for Nature ad which tried to pass off opinion (that cars cause global warming) as fact.
Needless to say, we lost. Probably because these institutions are now riddled with labour-supporting bike-riders.
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16 people complained about the MG ad? That looks suspiciously like an organised campaign to me. Every time a car company runs an ad about anything other than airbags, side impact bars and reduced exhaust emissions, they get complaints, and I can't help thinking that the anti car pressure groups have some kind of rapid-response unit to ensure that the complaints are made as quickly as possible, and in the appopriate format. Unfortunately there isn't a parallel organisation that we can all contact to show our support for a particular campaign, so we have to wait for the anti-car people to complain, then try to respond. Still, if enough of us do it, perhaps the ASA will get fed up and put the complaints in the bin where they belong. Or perhaps the boys at Longbridge will find out where the anti-motoring agitators are based, and beat them to death with old-stock Austin Maestro driveshafts.
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Sounds to me these people are the Taliban of the car industry
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Sometimes of course the banning is also good publicity (though I don't agree with the ruling) hopefully Rover can make something out of this, rather like banning a record ... just remind me, what chart position did 'Frankie Goes to Hollywood' achieve with 'Relax (for example), and how about the news headlines created with the banning of the Sophie Dahl nude poster, free publicity. As they say there is no such thing as 'bad' publicity. (plenty of bad ASA rulings however). Good luck to Rover.
S.
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