You may have already read the recent news that an advert for the Audi R8 coupe was recently banned in the UK by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) following just one complaint. This individual argued that the advert was irresponsible because it linked speed with excitement. The ASA upheld the complaint and has ruled that the same advert can not be broadcast on British television again.
You can still watch the recently banned advert on YouTube. Check out the clip just below to judge for yourself whether the ban was warranted.
The ban on this R8 advert has stirred up debate on whether car adverts should avoid showing speeding or other aggressive driving to prevent encouraging undesirable behaviour on our roads, or is it nonsenical to ban an ad over such a thing, especially if it's a sports car being shown - which is mostly about performance anyway.
One thing's for sure, the Audi R8 is far from being the first sports car to have an advert banned for such reasoning. Here's a look at some other sports car adverts you can view online but have been banned from television channels.
BMW M4 Convertible
This commercial for the BMW M4 Convertible fell foul of the ASA when a complaint was made that it was socially irresponsible and encouraged unsafe driving.
The advert shows clips of the M4 being driven on both public roads and on a race track, and it's fair say the car is driven in an aggressive manner when its on track. BMW argued that it was easy enough to identify when the car was on the road and when it was on the race track, but the ASA disagreed and stopped the ad from being shown on TV. The ASA also advised BMW that their future ads should focus less on speed or driving in a manner that could be seen as irresponsible.
Jaguar F-TYPE - The Art of Villainy
This ad starring Tom Hiddleston, which formed part of Jaguar's 'Good to be bad' campaign, sees the actor explain what makes the British so good at playing villains, with the aid of a Jaguar F-TYPE coupe, naturally. Towards the end of the advert, the F-TYPE is seen being driven in London and it's this part specifically which ultimately led to it being banned by the ASA following a complaint that it encouraged unsafe driving.
Although they acknowledged Jaguar's argument that speed was not the focus of the advert, the ASA did find during the latter part of the ad that the noise of acceleration and speed with which the car left the basement “appeared to suggest significant speed within an enclosed environment”.
Toyota GT86 - The Real Deal
Not long after the Toyota GT86 first launched in the UK market, the coupe sports car had one of its adverts shown on TV banned by the ASA following two complaints. Although virtually all the advert is CG footage, this couldn't allow it to escape complaint.
The ASA ruled the uncut advert had numerous scenes which "depicted the character driving at speed and in a reckless manner, as shown by the reactions of bystanders as he drove past them, and the car chase scenes as the driver dodged, swerved and overtook various other drivers and obstacles".
Chevrolet Corvette C6
This advert was shown on US television to coincide with the launch of the Corvette C6 sports car, but got pulled not long after it was first broadcast due to criticism for showing children driving cars in a speedy manner.
Although the ad clearly depicts a dream setting and no children actually drove the cars, Chevrolet feared a major backlash if they fought the case against them, so it ended up disappearing off screens.
