London - We’re keen for car manufacturers to have CO2 and fuel economy information on their car advertisements. The official VCA Guidance Notes in the UK regarding billboards state that the information is meant to be easy to read from the other side of the street.
We all know a lot of advertisers cheat and more often than not you can hardly see the text, even with a pair of binoculars. But the new VW Polo ad has really taken the biscuit. Perhaps with a magnifying glass (a strong one) you might – just might – be able to make it out if you got very, very close to the ad. We have all been a bit taken aback by the audacity of Volkswagen on this one. They should be aware of the rules in the UK.
According to Alex Brownsell at Marketing magazine, "I had a chat with one of the agencies that works on VW and they say the campaign came out of Germany, and will have been produced by either DDB Germany or DDB Spain. It’s the continuing tale of overseas agencies not swatting up on UK advertising guidances, like we saw with BMW [Mini]!"
This case highlights how we need the same standards for car adverts across all EU member states.
We’ll be looking out for more rule breakers, and, for what it’s worth, be reporting them to the VCA (as well as Marketing Magazine) . And we’ll be ordering up our high-powered magnifying glasses right away.
