‘Dangerous and irresponsible’ Motorway advert banned following complaints

An advert from used car marketplace Motorway has been banned after complaints said that it condoned dangerous driving.

Put out both online and on television, the advert depicted car dealers racing one another to reach a vehicle they were both bidding on. It was designed to showcase Motorway’s end-to-end car selling service.

The advert opened with a man in a bath uploading the details of his car onto Motorway’s site, with the car in question then being taken away by a Motorway-branded trailer. His house is also seen being initially hooked up to the trailer, too.

The following scene shows dealers racing along a motorway while bidding for the car, with the winning dealer leaping from their vehicle into the cab of the lorry in order to reach his ‘prize’.

However, the advert received 15 complaints made via the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). People said they believed the ad to be irresponsible as it encouraged dangerous driving.

In response, Motorway told the regulator that the advert had been designed to depict a fantastical situation, with the sequences in the seller’s imagination. Computer game-style graphics were also used to show ‘price bids’ above the cars, furthering the unrealistic feel.

Lloyd Page, CMO, Motorway, told Car Dealer Magazine: “Although our TV advert complied with the guidance provided by Clearcast, following the ASA-upheld complaint, the advert will not broadcast again in its original form. We do not condone or encourage dangerous driving.”

Motorway also said that the stunt showing the dealer jumping into the cab of the truck was designed to show that it was performed in a controlled environment and not on a real-life motorway.

The advert had been passed by TV advert approval organisation Clearcast, which advised the agency behind the advert – Wonderhood – that the driving scenes should be made to look particularly fantastical so that no part of it would be easy to replicate in real life.

However, the ASA deemed the driving in the advert as irresponsible as it condoned competitive and unsafe driving which breached its codes. It did agree that some elements of the advert were fantastical, such as the dealer jumping into the truck, but that its motorway location with ordinary cars and drivers made it recognisable as a real-life setting.

The ASA labelled the driving manoeuvres ‘dangerous and irresponsible if emulated in real life on a public highway’.