ASA slams Land Rover exaggeration

Land Rover has come under fire from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for making exaggerated claims about the power and agility of its Discovery model.

National press ads for the Discovery, by WCRS, claimed it could tow a 3,500kg load on wet grass down a 35-degree gradient.

But Land Rover was forced to admit it could not substantiate the claim and the ads, which were also found by the ASA to encourage unsafe and illegal driving, were withdrawn.

A complaint was also upheld against another Land Rover press ad showing a Discovery towing a Boeing 747.

Nissan has also been rapped by the ASA over a press ad, by TBWA GGT Simons Palmer, for its Primera model, which labelled rival Rover a “mongrel”. The authority found the ad “unfairly denigrated”.

The Sun is also on the receiving end of ASA criticism – for the fifth time in a year. A complaint has been upheld against the newspaper’s “Everyone’s a winner” offer, which – among other prizes – offered readers free flowers, courtesy of telephone enquiry service Scoot.

Many of the florists which signed up to the offer dropped out and participants found they had to travel up to 100 miles to claim their prize.

An ASA spokesman says: “We had to remind the promoters that phrases such as ‘subject to availability’ do not relieve them of their obligation to avoid disappointing participants.”