BMW's (Ob)noxious Ad Shot Down

The RAC (that’s the Royal version of the AAA, in case you don’t know) reports that BMW has run into trouble with the UK Advertising Standards Agency (ASA, that’s no film speed in the UK) with one of their adverts. In it, BMW claimed that its Z4 roadster had low levels of CO2 (you know CO2? That obnoxious gas which every government in the world is trying to reduce/tax?). The advert reads “Joy makes the most of every drop…So you can step on the accelerator, knowing Joy will minimise the CO2 emissions.” The advert ends with “BMW EfficientDynamics, Less emissions, More driving pleasure.” This riled two people enough to complain to the ASA. Now what could have been so contentious…?

Well, the answer to that question lies in the small print of the advert. In it, BMW states quite clearly that the car in question (a BMW Z4 sDrive 35is Roadster) emits 210g/km. Now to give this some context, 210g/km is band K in the UK car tax system (did I mention tax?), only 2 below the highest tax band. Hardly a Toyota Prius. Well, it seems BMW had a different interpretation of the advert. They argued that they were comparing the Z4 against the previous generation Z4. They also argued that the Z4 had the lowest emissions of any of its competitors’ comparable models. The ASA came down in favour of the complainers, citing that readers were likely to assume that BMW’s claims were a comparison against all cars and not just cars in its class. “Because an emission rate of 210 g/km was relatively high for any car, despite being lower than BMW’s previous model and some competitors’ similar specification vehicles, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead without further qualification.” ASA said. It does make me wonder, though. Who’s looking at an advert for a sportscar and thinking “Wow! I’m killing the planet with my Insight! I’ve gotta get me that 3 litre, 6 cylinder roadster!”.

Wasn’t that one also banned? Picture courtesy hypebeast.com