In a replay of last year, a Lexus RX 450h 400h advertisement has been banned by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority:
The press ad, for the Lexus RX 400h, made the claim: “perfect for today’s climate. (And tomorrow’s) … Driving the world’s first luxury hybrid SUV makes environmental, and economic, sense …”
Four complaints were made to the Advertising Standards Authority that the claims were misleading because “they implied that the car caused little or no harm to the environment and gave a misleading impression of the car’s CO2 emissions in comparison with other vehicles”.
Lexus said that the use of the word “climate” in the ad was meant to operate at “two levels”.
One was that in the current economic market the Lexus was offered with attractive financial packages, the other that hybrid cars were more environmentally friendly.
But the ASA said the ad implied that the vehicle’s emission rate was low in relation to all vehicles and that readers were likely to understand that “the car caused little or no harm to the environment”.
(The above advertisement is a modified version made by Lexus after the receiving complaints. The original ad didn’t have the word “economic” in the headline.)
To be honest, I see anything wrong with the ad at all, and not only that, isn’t it strange that Lexus isn’t allowed to promote their product’s strength over competitors?
[Source: The Guardian]