We’re living some rather interesting times, there’s no doubt about that. Apparently, in our day and age it’s perfectly fine to have movies portraying explicit scenes and gory deaths in cinemas but not an ad that shows a car’s engine taken to the redline.
That’s exactly what happened in Australia just now as an anonymous complaint reached the country’s Advertising Standards Bureau. In it, the complainant claims that the latest commercial for the 2 Series portrays bad driving behavior and therefore should be banned.
While, at first, we scoffed at the thought that the ASB would take this matter seriously, we were amazed to learn that they actually did. According to the organization’s public press release, the complaint said that the ad “commenced with the vehicle being accelerated such that it lost traction of its driving wheels, then accelerating at speed and preceded to display 360s and significant loss of traction, typical of hoon activity.”
Furthermore, the plaintiff also claims that he considers “it portrays an unfavorable message, contrary to safe and sensible driving.” Taking things seriously, ASB put a hold on showing the ad in public cinemas or on TV until it reaches a conclusion.
Of course, BMW defended the commercial and immediately released an official statement saying that the car wasn’t at any point shown being driven above the speed limit and that no image of the speedometer is displayed, despite the fact that the rev-counter does pop up repeatedly.
“Any sensation of ‘speed’ was delivered by deliberate editing of a high standard (including by panning or rotating the footage) to create dramatic visual effect,” said BMW Australia.
“We understand that footage of the vehicle on unsealed dusty desert roads was shot on private property, with deliberate camera angles, possible weather and lighting effects (including clever use of a low angle sun) employed to add visual impact,” they added.
Furthermore, the PR specialists from the German company also claim that seeing the commercial in a cinema environment with “Dolby surround sound and high definition, super-size cinema screens” might’ve influenced the way the viewer perceived the message.
Of course, each side has its own point of view here but what do you think? Should this commercial (posted below) be considered so dangerous that it has to be removed or is the complaint absurd and frivolous as BMW calls it?
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