One Pathetic Complaint Got This Amazing Audi R8 Advert Banned
It’s rare to hear any engine noise on a car advert in the UK, so to have a 5.2-litre V10 wailing amidst all the crap about pay day loans and esoteric perfume commercials was very welcome indeed. It was all thanks to Audi’s ‘The Eye’ advert, featuring the second-generation R8, but sadly, it’s just been banned. Why? Because one person complained to the Advertising Standards Authority.
As we explained before when Honda’s ‘Keep Up’ advert was banned, the amount of complaints doesn’t really matter: if something which breaches the strict ‘Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice Code’ is brought to the ASA’s attention, it gets the ban hammer out. And in the case of ‘The Eye’, the ASA upheld a complaint that alleged the advert “linked speed with excitement”.
In the ASA’s ruling, the organisation stated:
“Audi said they disagreed that the ad linked speed with excitement or that it was irresponsible. They said the ad was not about speed and was carefully shot (with cars travelling at speeds of less than 30 mph) and edited to avoid giving any impression of speed. Consequently, if the ad had shown excitement, it would not be linked with speed. However, Audi said the ad did not show excitement, as the dilating and contracting pupil denoted concentration and focus, which was a documented scientific phenomenon.”
The ASA disagreed with VW Group/Audi’s response, stating that: “The ad breached BCAP Code rules 1.2 (Social responsibility) and 20.3 (Rules for motoring advertisements),” the problem being that “several upward changes of gear could be heard and we considered that, without clear visual context…it was likely to be interpreted by viewers as quick acceleration.”
As a result, all that lovely V10 noise - packaged up in a slick, clever advert - has been removed from our screens. So, a hearty “thanks bro” goes out to nannying advertising regulations, and whoever had enough time on their hands to complain about an advert that really wasn’t irresponsible.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
screw who ever got triggered by this, the add is amazing and should have who ever complained watch this at least 5 times a day for the next 5 years
Clint Eastwood is right. Our generation is fully of p*ssies. And probably the generation before us.
Wow and i thought California was strict
I loved that advert it made you want one
How can you link Audi with excitement.
This audi is angry as you are.
There is a problem with their logic… Speed IS Exciting! (Plus almost anyone that can afford and AUDI R8 V10+ either never drives it, or is smart enough to drive it on a track as intended)
That’s why they are called “non-carguys”
Dear person who complained about this advertisement.
Just how shallow and empty is your life that you thought to prove a point to yourself and the world about how petty you are, by taking the time to make a formal complaint about a perfectly acceptable advertisement with the express intention of getting it banned from the screens? Do you feel validated now that you’ve done this? Has this helped to improve your life? Do you now feel empowered, like some sort of morally upstanding deity?
There is an answer to these questions and the answer is no. No one actually cares that much to be bothered for more than 5 minutes by the moral task you have undertaken. No one will remember you for this. You must have no life whatsoever.
I hope one day you can find happiness in your life in a way that doesn’t make people hang their heads in shame that you exist, because so far you’re wasting the oxygen for people with much better things to do.
its strange reading about/watching something that is “banned” … because somehow you and i are all still watching it, meaning that its not really a ban, and its label of being banned is pointless, and if the ban is pointless what does that make this article?… i understand its ridiculous that one idiots complaint could cause such a ruckus … but we all got to see it anyway didnt we … the real question is … why is a reving motor and dilating pupil being “banned” when there are some far more horrific things we are allowed to see on the daily