Holden was in hot soup earlier, for supposedly promoting speeding in one of their advertisements, which depicted a VF II Commodore travelling at 98 km/h!
The Advertising Standards Board (ASB) of Australia has cleared Holden of all charges over a Commodore that was supposedly speeding in a TV advertisement.
This was the complaint that led Holden into trouble.
“This ad is not about the car. This ad is about eliciting feelings of power, directing and motivating one to speed. Their car is the way to do this. But it is not an ad about motivating to purchase the car. Not only is it illegal to do these speeds in Australia, we have a major issue with deaths on our roads from speeding! Accidents can happen, but speed kills. Please remove it.”
Another one said:
“The advertisement is using speed as a leading point to sell their product when every law agency is doing its best to reduce the speed of cars.”
The last complain read:
“It should be aiming at the general public with its advert and not the many speeding hoons who according to GMH out number the ordinary motorist.”
Holden responded by saying that the advertisement is set in a ‘fantasy’ setting, and that it was filmed at the Avalon airport in Victoria under controlled conditions.
Additionally, Holden also said,
“The engine sound has been specifically featured in the Advertisement to draw attention to the introduction of the new bi-modal exhaust feature.”
They also mentioned that, “This feature has been introduced in response to high consumer demand for the authentic ‘overrun crackle’ which consumers identify with the Holden Commodore brand. The ‘crackle’ has been featured in the Advertisement as, by its nature it can only heard, not seen. However, noise does not in these circumstances equate to speed.”
“Holden engineers have confirmed the same note would be audible whilst the vehicle is being operated at speeds of between 25km/h to 99 km/h. Therefore, excessive speed was not required, and was not in fact used, to achieve the audible sound and we note the same sound can be produced at very low speeds (consistent with most V8s),” Holden added.
Lastly, Holden concluded by saying, “The Advertisement does not encourage ‘speeding’ as a means for drivers to experience the true V8 engine noise. We therefore reject assertions that the vehicle was being driven at excess speeds, or in any case, recklessly.”
Internet trolls hard at work in Australia it seems, and thankfully Holden was dropped of all charges.
Via: motoring.com.au
Watch the said advertisement below and let us know what you think in the comments section.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNjIpip6e3A
