BMW i3s falls foul of advertising complaint

The Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) has upheld a complaint levelled against BMW Australia for a video of the company's i3 electric vehicle outrunning a Dodge Charger from the late 1960s.

Appearing on Instagram, the video promotes the sporty new variant of the EV, the i3s, which made its debut in Frankfurt two months ago. Despite the Dodge's abundant, tyre-shredding torque, the i3s beats it to 60km/h from a standing start. Ironically, it doesn't appear to be the i3s that's brought BMW undone, it's the tractionless Dodge that has brought the commercial the wrong sort of attention.

One complaint submitted to the ASB for consideration included this observation: "Promotion of street racing/ drag racing/ speeding in motor vehicles is highly offensive. Many Australians have had friends and family members killed or injured by partaking in these sorts of activities. This video promotes illegal street racing."

BMW Australia made this response: "As demonstrated in the attached 30 sec digital clip, there are two cars featured: the red vehicle shown in the clip is not a BMW and is an old fashioned car, depicting a scenario whereby an older vehicle is out of date, promoting the new-electric car as the way of the future.

"The clip demonstrates a comparison of old versus electric, to endorse the power of electricity is better than a classic car, and to discourage vehicles that pollute the environment and create emissions, not to depict a drag race.

"At the 15 second mark, there is slight haze raised from behind the red car, caused by the natural motion of the old fashioned vehicle accelerating, but it is not excessive. At no time are the vehicles speeding nor does the driver lose control of the vehicle.

"The vehicles’ headlights are turned on during the scenes depicted at night-time. In some scenes there are two vehicles that are driving side by side, however they are both within their own lanes and the speed odometer is never shown to imply speeding is occurring.

"The commercial utilises motion lighting effects, and jump cut edits that add energy to the overall clip. The vehicles are never speeding and the clip was filmed under controlled, closed road conditions."

BMW admitted to the ASB that the video was shown on YouTube and Facebook/Instagram, but argued that the social media content did not fall within the strict definition of advertising.

"A CAD letter has not been provided in this case, as it is not deemed necessary to gain approval for social media content. A script is not available due to the content coming centrally out of our BMW marketing headquarters in Germany and there is no voice over."

The ASB determined that advertising encapsulated "matter which is published or broadcast in all of Australia, or in a substantial section of Australia, for payment or other valuable consideration and which draws the attention of the public, or a segment of it, to a product, service, person, organisation or line of conduct in a manner calculated to promote or oppose directly or indirectly that product, service, person, organisation or line of conduct".

Furthermore, the ASB argued, that the pertinent clause of the FCAI code insists that "Advertisements for motor vehicles do not portray ...unsafe driving, including reckless or menacing driving that would breach any Commonwealth law or the law of any State or Territory in the relevant jurisdiction in which the advertisement is published or broadcast dealing with road safety or traffic regulation, if such driving were to occur on a road or road-related area, regardless of where the driving is depicted in the advertisement."

And… on top of all that, the code's explanatory notes specifically state: "Advertisers should avoid references to the speed or acceleration capabilities of a motor vehicle (for example, “0-100 km/h in 6.5 seconds”)."

Then, the ASB cited Queensland road rules that stipulate a driver must not drive "a vehicle in a way that causes noise or smoke by wilfully and unnecessarily causing the wheels of the vehicle to lose traction and spin on the road surface."

After the ASB determined it should uphold the complaint for a breach of Clause 2a of the FCAI code, BMW responded that it had removed the video from all forms of media with effect from October 12, and would not modify the video for republication at a later date.

The case has been documented in full by the ASB.