Volvo ad on the skids

Volvo has fallen foul of a complaint concerning one of its TV commercials, featuring the S60 performing a handbrake turn.

According to industry journal AdNews, the company has received the complaint via the Advertising Standards Bureau, pointing out that the commercial, which was shot in the US, concludes with a car "executing" a 180-degree turn.

Jaedene Hudson, Volvo's Australian Public Affairs Manager told motoring.com.au that the commercial in question was a variation on the company's 'Naughty S60' campaign and was only shown a few times before the complaint was raised. According to Hudson, the final frames of the commercial featured a "90-degree" turn at the end, clearly with handbrake applied.

Handbrake turns are a type of manoeuvre the general public can witness any weekend in organised and CAMS-sanctioned motor sport events, but apparently the depiction of the manoeuvre in paid advertising spots on TV is strictly forbidden. Spare a thought for the creative types at the advertising firms who must find some way of conveying a sense of excitement from driving a new car, without showing anything remotely exciting.

While the ASB upheld the complaint, it did not accept the complainant's further argument that the car in the commercial was also travelling at an unsafe speed. The irony is that Volvo, more than most car companies, has an impeccable reputation for safety, both passive and active.

"The ad ran for about four weeks before the complaint was made," Hudson explained. "Then obviously we lost the case and the Advertising Standards Bureau gave us a few days to change the advert, which we actually did. We just changed the last frames... we removed the handbrake [turn] and then the ad went back on air on the 23rd of September.

"The one thing that we need to stress on this is that the actual filming of the advert was done in controlled circumstances; it was done on a closed road, so obviously there was no risk to anyone around the area..."

AdNews published the complaint verbatim, as it was received by the ASB.

"This advertisement is categorically incontrovertibly irrefutably unambiguously unequivocally indisputably indubitably undeniably unassailably and impregnably in breach of 2(a) and (c) of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) code."

It takes just the one formal complaint for the ASB to send the offending car company a 'please explain'. So who stands to benefit from lobbying the ASB for the removal or editing of this commercial? We invite our readers to take a wild stab…

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