Ads can make or unmake a company. This is why every company should be careful in what they say or showcase in their ads. Do you wanna hail street racing? Think again. You might suffer Mitsubishi’s plight…According to The Star release, Mitsubishi Motors Canada has lost an appeal of an advertising regulator's finding that one of the automaker's ads showed a disregard for safety. Consumers and safety advocates criticized the ad saying it promotes street racing.
Advertising Standards Canada, a self-regulating industry body, said in its third-quarter report that an appeal panel confirmed an original decision that sharply criticized the company's flashy spring television ad of a Lancer sports sedan roaring down streets and complained that it glorified street racing.
The advertising council originally called on Mitsubishi to cancel the commercial permanently during the summer. The automaker had already stopped running the ad, pending "a normal review." But the company justified the content saying that it did not promote street racing.
The regulator said the company’s ad did not look like a professional race, which Mitsubishi claimed, because it showed a woman dropping her hands to open an event and a driver wearing high-top sneakers. What’s more, the ad ended with the statement "Street Legal. We think." That point, plus readily identifiable music aimed at young people, contributed to the idea of street racing, the council added.
Mitsubishi’s ad appeared at a time when local attention was concentrated on the perils of street racing after a significant number of fatal accidents involving reckless driving and speeding cars.
The maker of Mitsubishi arrow radiator told the regulator it has no plans to run the ad again. That’s pleasant to the ears!