Can you have too much of a good thing? Hyundai doesn't think so.
When the Korean car maker launched its "five star" retail advertising campaign at the beginning of the year, it highlighted which of its new models scored a five-star ANCAP safety rating.
But it also listed those which Hyundai believed were "five star quality", "five-star value" and "five-star tough".
In the advertisements, the ANCAP five-star cars were distinguished by a yellow and black five-star logo, while the other five-star cars (for value, quality and toughness) were distinguished by a blue and white logo.
Despite the differentiation, the ad caught the attention of ANCAP, which has expressed concern that so many five-star ratings could dilute the safety message and give some readers the impression all cars listed in the advertisement had a five-star safety rating.
In most advertisements, only two of the five or six cars listed were awarded five stars for safety.
"We have some concerns about Hyundai and other brands passing-off five-star ratings for new-car crash tests," said the head of ANCAP Lauchlan McIntosh. "It's an issue we are concerned about.
"We are proud of the five-star ANCAP rating and we don't want it diluted."
However, McIntosh admitted that in his opinion there was no breach of advertising guidelines in the Hyundai example.
"We're not about to go to the ACCC and argue a passing-off case on this particular instance," McIntosh said. "We have no control over car makers talking about five-star quality and whatever but we would ask them to consider any mixed messages they may be sending."
McIntosh said ANCAP had not complained to Hyundai about the advertisements.
Hyundai Australia director of marketing Oliver Mann confirmed there had been no contact from ANCAP about the five-star advertisements.
"This campaign started in January this year and this is the first time the subject's been raised with us," he said.
"The five-star campaign banner is a long-term retail program. Each model is tagged with a specific five-star quality.
"In some cases it's five-star design, quality, economy or toughness. In those instances where a car has a five-star safety rating, we mention the five-star safety at that point.
"In our view there's been no intention to deceive or mislead anybody. It never occurred to us to try and leverage that opportunity to confuse people. It's a genuine co-incidence."
Mann likened the five-star ratings to those for five-star hotels. "Five-star is just symbolic of excellence in a number of areas. It's very clear we're not referring to safety in all instances."
Meanwhile, McIntosh revealed ANCAP had over the years asked a number of car makers to remove US five-star safety ratings because that score can be achieved at a lower safety threshold than an ANCAP five-star rating.
"In recent years we have written to other brands who've been using US five-star results in local advertising, and the five-star claims have then correctly been withdrawn from local ads," he said.
ANCAP is an independent crash test body funded by insurance companies and motoring authorities in Australia and New Zealand.
It has no power to approve or ban new vehicles, rather it is a consumer guide that attempts to define the various levels of crash safety of new motor vehicles.
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