Kia Responds to ASA Ad Censorship

As we told you earlier today, the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) decided to ban ads run by South Korean manufacturer Kia in the UK, saying they are misleading. The ads in question advertised the seven-year warranty offered by the carmaker, but did not mention, in ASA's opinion, the fact that not all of the car's components are covered by the same warranty.

Now, the ads have been corrected, Kia says and have been approved by learcast, the CAP Copy Advice Team and the RACC. The ads have been modified to say “Terms and exclusions apply,” on screen for the duration of the ad, while the 100,000 mile criterion has been inserted in the audio ad.

The changes implemented by Kia, or at least accepting them, was not easy for the manufacturer, as ASA's decision to censor the ads came after complaints made by Warranty Direct, an independent warranty provider and an indirect competitor for Kia on the warranty front.

“At Kia we are very proud of our warranty and are absolutely committed to communicating clearly on it. We believe that this is what we tried to do and that we were in line with other comparable advertisements, nonetheless we accept the ASA ruling and immediately acted to change the advertisements concerned which were back on air prior to the adjudication being released,” Simon Hetherington, Kia Motors marketing director said in a statement.

Currently, the Kia warranty offer for the UK market is a bit like follows:

• no mileage limit during the first 3 years, except for vehicles used as taxis where a limit of 100,000 miles applies
• 100,000 mile limit between years 4 and 7
• paintwork covered for 5 years / 100,000 miles
• audio covered for 3 years / 60,000 miles
• batteries covered for 2 years