ITC bans Daewoo ad over ‘misleadingly sweeping’ claim

Daewoo has been forced to pull a Duckworth Finn Grubb Waters ad which claims customers who put their cars in for service receive “virtually identical” replacements.

The ad, which was shot in a CCTV style, claimed “every year, thousands of cars are taken from their owners’ homes and places of work… and replaced by virtually identical ones with hardly anybody noticing”.

The Independent Television Commission (ITC) upheld a complaint by a Daewoo Leganza owner who had only been given an exact replacement once in more than a dozen servicing appointments. The ITC said the ad was “misleadingly sweeping”.

The ITC has also upheld complaints against Channel 4 and Channel 5 after they decided to defy Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC) advice and show a potentially offensive ad for Miller Pilsner.

The ad, by Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R, features a US comedian saying that his friends at home had said “wear the fox hat” when he announced he was going to Auchtermuchty.

The play on words resulted in some viewers hearing an expletive.

The commercial was shown on Scottish and Grampian television in 1998 and attracted no complaints.

Electrical retailer Comet has been forced to pull an ad for its “price guarantee scheme” after staff refused to give a refund to a customer who had found a lower price at a nearby Argos.