ASA bans Vauxhall Ampera advert for making misleading claims
Wed 22 August 2012
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A TV advertisement for the Vauxhall Ampera has had to be withdrawn following complaints that it suggested that the vehicle is capable of travelling 360 miles using electricity alone. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld the complaint saying that it was ambiguous and unclear to users who may be unfamiliar with the technology.
Vauxhall responded that the Ampera was a unique type of car because it could be driven electrically for 360 miles. They explained that it was capable of travelling up to 50 miles on a fully charged battery, and that beyond that point the Ampera's "range extender" mode took over. In this mode the internal combustion engine acted as an on-board generator for the electric motor and would take the car the remaining distance using electricity generated from the petrol in its fuel tank. They stated that the claim that the Ampera had a 360-mile range was in fact conservative and significantly understated the range achieved in vehicle tests in order to allow for "real world" driving styles.
Vauxhall said it went to great lengths in all their advertising to communicate the unique selling point of the Ampera, the petrol engine which worked as a generator, which gave drivers the confidence to travel distances normally only associated with traditional or hybrid cars. The company emphasised that it would never intentionally mislead the public but that the car could travel 360 miles driven by electricity and it believed this was clear from the ad. The company nevertheless offered to make changes to the on-screen text if this was deemed necessary.
The ASA acknowledged that the advert contained on-screen text which referred to the car's "additional power source". However, it considered that the qualifier "even when an additional power source is generating electricity" was ambiguous, particularly in the context of an ad for a new type of hybrid car, and that an average viewer unfamiliar with the use of petrol engines in electric vehicles would not necessarily understand what the additional power source was. We also considered that the text was unclear as to what comparison was being made.
The ASA considered that throughout the ad the emphasis was on the fact that the car was being driven electrically, and that most viewers would not understand that the car was in some circumstances being powered by electricity generated with a petrol engine.
The advert promoted an innovative product which many viewers would not immediately understand and the ASA therefore considered that it would need to explicitly state that the car had a petrol engine. Because it did not clearly explain how the vehicle worked in extended-range mode, it concluded that the advert was misleading.
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