Honda ad banned because it encouraged dangerous driving
Honda's TV ad encouraged 'dangerous or irresponsible' driving by placing the speed of the car as the central element of the campaign.
Two viewers complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) about the Weiden + Kennedy created ad, which featured a series of text clips such as "You can surprise yourself. Suddenly you find you can go faster than you thought. And go past the limit you thought you had. To places you didn't think you could reach. It feels pretty good, right".
Honda said the ad was created to "inspire people to push their perceived limits" using a speed-reading technique. In doing so, it challenged viewers to "push themselves through speed-reading" to catch up with the increasing speed of the text appearing on screen.
The car marque added that any reference, explicit or otherwise, to speed did not relate to "anything other" than speed-reading the on-screen text.
The ASA said that although the cars appeared briefly on screen, the clips which appeared to show them moving at speed were coupled with sound effects. The watchdog added that viewers were unlikely to interpret the fast changing text as a speed-reading challenge.
"While the ad did not include realistic depictions of the vehicles being driven in a dangerous manner, we considered, when taken altogether, the fast changing on-screen text, references to "pushing yourself" and "going faster", the scenes of the cars, sound effects and accompanying sound track was likely to leave viewers with the impression that speed was the central message of the ad," said the ASA.
Honda was told by the ad watchdog to ensure they did not make speed the central element of their advertising.