A complaint suggested Audi was exaggerating its cars' ability to assist in dangerous situations and automatically manoeuvre into safety
AUDI has avoided a ban of its latest advert that was accused of exaggerating its cars' driver-assisted safety features.
The single complaint was rejected by the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority), despite the watchdog canning a Nissan advert a fortnight ago for the same reason.
Featuring the musical song 'Send in the Clowns', the commercial depicted distracted drivers dressed as clowns causing havoc on the road.
Automated systems helped the Audi cars avoid collisions, to which the complainant argued gave drivers a false sense of security and reliability.
The ASA believed that the near misses in the fantastical world were humorous enough for audiences to believe that the technology does not provide complete safety.
It noted in its report: "We considered that viewers would understand that the scenes were not depictions of real-life scenarios, and were likely to consider the references to clowns as intended to represent bad or dangerous drivers, which the Audi's safety features could help drivers guard against."
However, the authority recently deemed Nissan's Airport ad as showing exaggerated safety, because its new Micra appeared to come to halt too quickly when a person walked in front of the car.
Nissan insisted that its Intelligent Emergency Braking with Pedestrian Recognition works up to 37mph, with the Micra travelling at 16mph in the clip.
The ASA said in its ruling: "We noted the ad then depicted one near miss incident in which a worker appeared from around the corner of a building, subsequently activating the car's braking safety feature.
"As the brake was activated, both the passenger and driver were swung forward in the vehicle as if making an emergency stop. At the same time the music, which had been building, stopped as well.
"We considered that the combination of all these elements created the impression that the driver was able to navigate at speed in a rushed or distracted manner and ultimately could rely on the Micra’s braking system intervening to help prevent a collision."
Kostyantyn Lobov, a senior associate specialising in advertising at law firm Harbottle & Lewis, said: "The Audi decision is an interesting contrast to an adjudication on another ad by a car manufacturer issued just last week.
"Both were promoting similar adaptive safety technology in their cars, but one was banned while the other was not.
"In this case, what helped Audi was the fantastical presentation of the ad, and moving the focus of the ad away from the driver and their state of mind.
"This illustrates the fine margins on which the ASA sometimes reaches its decisions, particularly in the motoring sector, where even factors like the tempo of background music can be taken into account."
