Jaguar Adverts Banned

Published Date: 26th Jun 2014

Some adverts for Jaguar have been banned for having too much focus on the cars' speed and in-turn encouraging dangerous driving.

Four video ads on the car maker’s website showed a car driving at high speed through a tunnel and crossing over the single white lines in the middle of a road, before driving across a mountain roads at night.

One other scene showed the car driving on open land at high speed, while voice-overs said: "The adaptive dynamics technology reacts 20 times faster than the human eye. It delivers a smooth drive by continuously analysing speed, steering and body movement of the car 500 times a second, giving every journey an instinctive, stable and agile ride."

The ads ended with the Jaguar logo alongside text reading: "Jaguar. How alive are you?" to the sound of an engine revving.

Some viewers complained that the ads were irresponsible because they "glorified speed and encouraged dangerous driving". Jaguar said the footage of the cars on the open highway was filmed in Switzerland on closed sections of road on the Susten Pass and the Grimsel Pass.

Jaguar said the ads' emphasis was the technical features and abilities of the cars, and the shots of the cars crossing lanes on the closed road were specifically to highlight the lightweight construction for cornering stability and safety.

The company said the ads "at no time demonstrated any dangerous driving", and there was no indication that speed limits had been broken.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said "the overall impression of the ads was a focus on the speed and acceleration of the cars, emphasised by the sound of engines being revved, high tempo music and the use of blurred lines". It noted that the cars were driving on what appeared to be public roads and in a manner that would be "irresponsible and illegal" on public roads in the UK.

The ASA explained: "We considered that the cars were being handled in a dangerous manner that might encourage motorists to drive irresponsibly. The ASA acknowledged that Jaguar had amended the ads to include an on-screen caption, which stated that the ads were filmed on closed roads with a professional driver and advising that viewers always followed local speed limits.

The ASA ruled that the ads must not appear again in their current form and explained to Jaguar "not to portray speed as the focus of an ad in future... and not to portray driving behaviour that might encourage motorists to drive irresponsibly in future".