Ford of NZ Demands Gov Pull Safety Ad

Robert Farago
by Robert Farago

A debadged Ford Falcon blasts down a country road in what seems like a new car ad– and then fishtails and somersaults into a ditch. For some reason, Ford isn't exactly enamored by the New Zealand government's latest anti-speeding TV campaign. Ford claims the $2m (NZ) TV spot is a riff on their ad for a Falcon XR6 aired three years ago. What's more, the new Falcon's stability control render the crash depicted in the ad "highly unlikely." Well, that's part of the argument Ford's lawyers will use in a high court petition if LTZN doesn't yank the ad inäianei. The New Zealand Herald reports that Ford Spokesperson Clare Ponton gilded the rhetorical lily by suggesting that a number of concerned customers contacted Ford about the ad, "indicating the car is easily identifiable as a Ford." And that some Falcon owners completely missed the point of the government's anti-speeding message.

Robert Farago
Robert Farago

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  • Iamwho2k Iamwho2k on Sep 17, 2007

    Having visited NZed, I love the place. That's all I wanted to say. :-) Ford may be overreacting. Or not. But I don't know if that ad is as disgusting as the latest anti-smoking ads I'm seeing locally, where they are depicting babies either being fed cigarette butts or being bathed in it-- Gross!

  • Stuntnun Stuntnun on Sep 18, 2007

    i think its just easy to bash a ford--but if they wanted to be realistic about it id show a person hanging out of the car with a cell phone or beer in there hand and id use a sports car with a kid driver or a top heavy suv as the vehicle. but to tell the truth i always like to push it on windy roads its pure fun. maybe 10,000 years from now the gene for bad driving will be killed off from the gene pool.

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