Ad description
An ad for Toyota, seen in the Guardian and The i newspapers in April and May 2022, featured an image of three cars driving close together along a country road. Large text at the top of the page stated, “THAT GR FEELING THE TOYOTA GR SERIES”. Smaller text at the bottom of the ad stated, “Precise. Balanced. Playful. It’s this elusive combination that delivers the heart-pumping excitement of the Toyota GR Series. Pure performance cars, born from Toyota Gazoo Racing. And now on a road near you”. The bottom of the ad featured the Toyota GR logo, which included the letters “GR” and the text “TOYOTA GAZOO Racing”.
Issue
Three complainants, including the Worthing Green Party, who believed the ad condoned and encouraged driving behaviour that was dangerous, challenged whether the ad was irresponsible.Response
Toyota (GB) plc said that the Toyota GR Series was based on knowledge and technology developed through their Toyota Gazoo Racing brand.
They highlighted that the subheading and copy referenced the “GR Series” and explained its origins in their Gazoo Racing team. They said readers would be familiar with the common practice of vehicle models having names formed of a few letters or numbers, and for some models to have names derived from racing brands.
They believed it would be tenuous to suggest that model names derived from racing brands could themselves serve to encourage irresponsible driving behaviour. They also thought readers would only read the “GR” in the headline “THAT GR FEELING” and elsewhere in the ad phonetically, as relating to the GR Series. They said the dictionary spelling of a growling sound was “grrr”, and that it was highly unlikely that readers would pronounce any of the iterations of “GR” in the ad as a growling sound.
They further said that the phrase “that [xxxx] feeling” was used commonly in ads, and so would be familiar to readers, who would interpret the claim solely as a reference to the feeling of enjoyment of driving a GR Series vehicle rather than as referencing aggression.
The three vehicles in the image were being driven on a track, not a public road. This was clear from the width of the tarmac and the lack of central road markings. Additionally, their number plates stated the vehicle models (e.g. “GR SUPRA”) rather than being normal road plates. Readers would understand that the vehicles were being driven in a controlled formation in a staged publicity shot to show the three models in the Series together. They would not interpret the image as showing vehicles in a racing context or racing on a public road. The image had minimal blurring to imply motion, but not speed or irresponsible driving.
They said the text at the bottom of the ad would be viewed in the context of the headline and imagery. It did not draw out power, speed or acceleration. They highlighted that it referred to precision and balance, which they said linked to engineering and driveability rather than to speed or aggression. The word “playful” indicated that the vehicles were fun to drive. In the full context of the copy, readers would understand that those elements delivered “heart pumping excitement” rather than racing or irresponsible or aggressive driving. The remaining text explained that the cars were high performance vehicles which benefited from the use of technology that originated in motorsport. They said readers would not just associate motorsport with speed and racing but with a range of things, including engineering, technology, innovation, aerodynamics and attention to detail.
Toyota said that readers would not take anything from the ad that would override their understanding of driving safety and therefore it did not condone or encourage driving behaviour that was dangerous. However, they said they would not use the ad again.
The Guardian said that no complaints had been made directly to them about the ad, and they noted that it had run in other national newspapers.
Associated Newspapers (publishers of The i) said the publication of the ad was governed by their standard terms and conditions and they had not received any complaints directly about the ad.
Assessment
Upheld
The CAP Code required that marketing communications must not condone or encourage unsafe or irresponsible driving. If it could be emulated, marketing communications must not depict a driving practice that was likely to condone or encourage a breach of those rules of the Highway Code that were legal requirements if that driving practice seemed to take place on a public road or in a public space. Vehicles' capabilities may be demonstrated on a track or circuit if it was obviously not in use as a public highway.
The ad’s headline stated, “THAT GR FEELING”, with the subheading “THE TOYOTA GR SERIES”, and there were additional references in the smaller print and logo to the Toyota GR Series and Toyota Gazoo Racing. In that context the ASA considered that readers would understand that the “GR” referenced in the headline claim was the name of the range of vehicles and that it was related to Toyota’s motorsport brand. However, we considered some readers would also interpret the headline claim to be a play on words in that it also suggested a “grrr” sound, which they would associate with aggression and with the growling sound of a high performance engine.
We acknowledged that readers would understand that the image was a staged shot allowing the three vehicles in the range to be shown together. However, we understood that many public roads in the UK did not have central road markings and so considered it was not clear that the vehicles were being driven on a track rather than a public road. The copy in the ad ended, “And now on a road near you”, which we considered also contributed to an impression that the image showed the cars on a public road. We further considered that while readers would understand that the vehicles were shown in a staged shot, this did not discount the possibility that they were racing each other.
The body copy began with the text “Precise. Balanced. Playful. It’s this elusive combination that delivers the heart-pumping excitement of the Toyota GR Series”. We agreed that readers would understand from that context that the “heart-pumping excitement” was delivered by the engineering and ‘driveability’ of the vehicles. However, we considered that readers were unlikely to associate the phrase “heart-pumping excitement” with responsible driving behaviours, particularly in the context of the following phrase “Pure performance cars, born from Toyota Gazoo Racing”. We considered readers would instead interpret it as a suggestion that the higher performance nature of the GR Series meant that the vehicles were capable of delivering a performance based on speed and an element of risk, and therefore suggesting that drivers could push the boundaries of safe driving by speeding or engaging in other unsafe driving behaviours, such as, in the context of the image, racing or driving very close to other cars.
We considered that the overall impression created by the ad was a suggestion that the high performance nature of GR Series vehicles meant that drivers of those vehicles could push the boundaries of safe and responsible driving and that it was desirable and enjoyable to do so. We concluded that in so doing the ad condoned and encouraged unsafe or irresponsible driving, and as such breached the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 19.2 19.2 Marketing communications must not condone or encourage unsafe or irresponsible driving. If it could be emulated, marketing communications must not depict a driving practice that is likely to condone or encourage a breach of those rules of the Highway Code that are legal requirements if that driving practice seems to take place on a public road or in a public space. Vehicles' capabilities may be demonstrated on a track or circuit if it is obviously not in use as a public highway. (Motoring).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Toyota (GB) plc to ensure their ads did not condone or encourage unsafe or irresponsible driving.
