Coulthard ad ban for promoting dangerous driving
A PRANK insurance TV ad featuring F1 star David Coulthard disguised as a taxi driver was meant to promote the value of safe driving.
As he skidded, swerved, spun and raced around suburban streets, the idea was to show bad habits hit drivers’ pockets.
However, insurers Aviva misunderstood the impact of the commercial – as advertising watchdogs felt it actually promoted reckless driving.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) responded to 58 complaints by banning the ad from TV.
The decision is a huge embarrassment for the company, since the point of the commercial was to promote its Aviva Drive app designed to reward safe drivers with lower premiums. The ad featured a text warning on screen urging people not to copy the stunts – specifying that the ‘extreme driving experiment’ was filmed in a ‘controlled environment’.
As the Scot, 46, revealed his true identity to ‘shaken’ passengers, a voice-over delivered the punchline: ‘Paying for other people’s bad driving. There’s no excuse for that. At Aviva safer drivers could save an average of £170.’
The app monitors driving skills, giving a score out of ten, to determine what discount might apply.
However, ASA said the high speed and nature of the stunts overshadowed the warning on screen. It added: ‘The manner in which the car was driven was extremely reckless. It was performed in a regular vehicle on public roads while showing other vehicles in motion – scenes that could be emulated by viewers, putting themselves and others at a significant risk.’
ASA also ruled: ‘The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Aviva UK Digital that their advertising must not encourage dangerous driving.’ Aviva said the ads starring the retired racer, from Twynholm, Kirkcudbrightshire, were part of a broader campaign aimed at making Britain’s roads safer.
The ‘extreme taxi journey’ meant to stress that safer motorists should not have to pay for others’ bad driving, but instead be rewarded. Aviva insisted that the objective was to discourage irresponsible driving – and said its own consumer research, using focus groups, suggested that people understood this message.
However, the insurers have decided to drop the ad.
A spokesman said: ‘We wanted to produce an advert which presented this idea in a completely different way.
‘However, we appreciate some viewers felt that the ad may have sent out the wrong message.’