More mileage on hybrid car advertising ruling

More mileage on hybrid car advertising ruling

ASA overturns complaint that hybrid car company’s advertising claims were misleading

New Zealand, Auckland, Thursday August 20, 2009 - A recent complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over claims made about the fuel efficiency and environmental benefits of hybrid cars in a television advertisement by The Clean Green Car Company has been dismissed in a unanimous decision by the ASA Complaints Board.

In the advertisement, The Clean Green Car Company claimed that the benefits of owning second-hand hybrid cars included being able to slash petrol bills, affordable to own, better for the owner’s environment, having great performance and being reliable and safe.

The “upside” list was followed by a “downside” that stated, “Jeremy Clarkson thinks they’re uncool” with humorous intent.

The sole complainant to the ASA stated that “none of the claims made can be backed up” and that the complainant “took exception to the slight made against Jeremy Clarkson”. The complainant also believed that the advertisement “perpetuates the myth that hybrid cars are orders of magnitude better than the current range of petrol and diesel cars”

The advertiser and owner of The Clean Green Car Company, Stephen Pollard, noted that there was a lot of misinformation about hybrid cars, especially in the current barrage of information about the environment.

“Complaints like these highlight how people can still have erroneous perceptions about hybrid cars, and how environmental issues could generate emotional and irrational responses by people afraid of change and challenges to their world view,” said Pollard. “We see these as an opportunity to set facts straight and to reiterate that we do not claim what we cannot back-up about owning a hybrid car.”

The ASA Complaints Board noted that it was satisfied that the claims made by The Clean Green Car Company were substantiated “in the advertiser’s thorough and well-researched response” and specifically that the claim that second-hand hybrid cars were “better for the environment” was “truthful and not exaggerating or misleading”.

In regards to the line stating “Jeremy Clarkson thinks they’re uncool”, the Complaints Board was of the view that this was a purely humorous addition to the advertisement and raised no concerns under the Advertising Code.

“We have had hate mail in the past from people who seem to associate hybrid cars with a conspiracy to stop them driving cars they like or perhaps as a response to what might be seen as exaggerated claims about the environmental benefits of hybrid technology from some car companies and environmentalists,” says Pollard.

“Unfortunately, there exists a perception of hybrid car owners as being smug and environmentally ‘holier than thou’. The truth is most of the people who buy second-hand hybrid cars from us are looking for a practical means of lowering their petrol bill and protecting themselves from future fuel price rises – environmental concerns are also a factor but are often secondary,” adds Pollard.

Pollard believes his company is not the only one who sees the value in hybrid cars moving forward. In a New Zealand Herald article this month, Toyota New Zealand’s chairman Bob Field urged the government to consider a “cash-for-clunkers” scheme similar in the US, so as to transform the nation’s aging, high-CO2 emissions car fleet.

Similarly, “Global Hybrid Car Market Forecast to 2010”, a report by industry research firm RNCOS released earlier this year, forecasts a surge in hybrid vehicle sales in the next five years due to the rapid development and increasing cost effective of new technology and favourable policies taking shape in Europe and the US.

“These factors will work in favour of our customers as an increasing demand for hybrid cars drive down technological and ownerships costs,” said Pollard. “What we offer through second-hand hybrid cards is the added affordability with guaranteed reliability.

ENDS

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