National advert ruled misleading
A National Party advert arguing Government policies will make cars up to $6000 more expensive has been ruled misleading by the advertising watchdog.
A second advert comparing the Provincial Growth Fund and Pharmac was also ruled against, although a minority of the panel sided with National.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) found against a Facebook advertisement promoted by the party attacking the Government’s proposed ‘‘feebate policy’’ and the accompanying fuel efficiency standard. The ASA said it was ‘‘likely to mislead consumers’’.
The ASA, which has no statutory power over National, asked that the advert be removed from the web.
But a spokesman from the National Party said it ‘‘strongly disagreed’’ with the ruling and would be appealing it. The party was seeking guidance from the ASA as to whether this meant it should be deleted while the appeal is processed.
The advert claimed that because the clean car standard could result in penalties for car importers who don’t meet an average emission standard across their entire fleet, those costs could be passed on to consumers in higher car prices.
This, combined with the ‘‘feebate’’ scheme which applies subsidies for some cars by imposing penalties on others, could turn into a $6000 fee on vehicles, the advert argued, noting that Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter had described the policy as imposing a ‘‘small fee’’.
‘‘What hope does an ordinary Kiwi have for getting some relief from taxes and costs if the people running the Government think $6000 is a small fee’’ the advert asked.
The advert was the subject of two complaints from a J Lawson and A Currie who said it was misleading, as the largest fee possible under the feebate scheme itself was $3000 – and this only applied to a small number of newly imported vehicles.
The ASA complaints board agreed that the National Party had not substantiated this claim to the level necessary for such a claim.
‘‘Having reviewed the LEV consultation document, the Complaints Board said there was no evidence the Clean Car Standard scheme would translate to a cost for the consumer as the advertisement claimed,’’ the board wrote.
It noted that the reference to ‘‘ordinary Kiwis’’ was not an ‘‘accurate reflection of the supplier penalty’’. As such the advert was ‘‘likely to confuse or deceive consumers’’.
The ASA ruled in favour of the National Party’s blistering attack against the feebate in recent weeks, dismissing a complaint about an advert more narrowly targeted at the feebate that compared a 1990s Toyota and a newly imported Porsche Cayenne.
The ASA ruled at that point that the example was ‘‘extreme’’ but not misleading.