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This Land Rover Defender TV Ad Just Got Banned For Lying About The SUV’s Parking Sensor Features
This Land Rover Defender TV Ad just got banned for lying about the capabilities of SUV’s parking sensors.
UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) was alerted to the misinformation on the TV Ad by two eagle-eyed viewers.
The Ad shows the driver using the reverse camera, which starts to beep as the SUV reverses too close to the cliff.
But the eagle-eyed viewers believed parking sensors can only sound when there are objects behind, and not when there is empty space.
They noted that the Land Rover will automatically reversed right off the cliff in this instance shown in the Ad.
UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a Land Rover Defender TV Ad after two eagle-eyed viewers saw misinformation about the capabilities of the SUV’s parking sensors.
The short Ad, first released by Land Rover in February, shows the driver using the reverse camera, which starts to beep as the Land Rover SUV reverses too close to the cliff.
The advertising watchdog said it was alerted by eagle-eyed viewers, who believed parking sensors can only sound when there are objects behind the vehicle, and not when there is empty space – as shown in the Ad.
They noted that the Land Rover would not beep in this instance as there are objects behind the vehicle, which means that the SUV will automatically reversed right off the cliff.
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In a statement released, the ASA said :
“We considered some viewers would therefore interpret that to mean that the car’s parking sensors could recognise when drivers might be reversing near a drop, which might include a smaller hill edge or a drop before water found in ‘on-road’ areas, both in urban and more rural settings.”
“Because we understood the car’s parking sensors reacted to objects behind the vehicle, rather than to empty space such as a drop, and the rocks were not sufficiently prominent to counter that interpretation, we concluded that the ads misleadingly represented the parking sensor feature.”
When contacted, the British car maker agreed that parking sensors would not warn of empty space behind the vehicle.
But they argued that the side shots of the vehicle clearly showed that it was reversing towards a boulder, the size and height of which would have been picked up by the sensors.
