A New Zealand car yard known for its comedic advertising was ordered to take down an online video after a formal complaint was made about the “sexual innuendo” used.
But it turns out it wasn’t the sexual references that the nation’s advertising authority had a problem with.
In Portage Cars’ Facebook and YouTube advertisement for a plug-in hybrid Mitsubishi Outlander, social media star Kiedis Haze, who was acting as a car salesman, told viewers they would “look like a MILF driving it”.
Other comments included “doing the deed under the fireworks at New Year’s” and “plug which matches the inserting action you’ve been getting”.
A disgruntled Kiwi made a formal complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority and claimed Portage Cars’ videos were “not only insulting but highly sexualized and not appropriate for a general audience in which it is promoted to”.
However, it was a different part of the complaint that ultimately saw the video taken down.
“ … it also claims that the advertiser has the ‘Easiest finance in the world’ but has nothing to backup this claim other,” the complainant wrote to the authority.
Portage Cars responded to the complaint saying the video was “not an advertisement” and was “a funny car review that generates social media and brand awareness”.
It said the humor was “well-received” in New Zealand and “even internationally when our videos go viral” with supportive commenters in Australia and the US.
“Clearly the saying ‘easiest finance in the world’ was said in jest, saying something is the easiest in the world is a common turn of phrase in New Zealand,” the company wrote.
It added: “The complainant has taken a light-hearted, satirical car review seriously without understating the New Zealand sense of humor.”
The Advertising Standards Authority ruled that the video had not caused serious or widespread offense and despite being risqué was unlikely to cause serious offense to the intended audience.
But the authority did find “the advertisement was misleading” due to it’s “easiest finance in the world” claim, and ordered the video to be removed and not used again in its current form.
Portage Cars general manager Craig Rutherford told NZME the company steers clear of advertising finance now due to the strict rules but they hadn’t been deterred from using sexual innuendo to sell cars.
“They’re working,” Rutherford said. “If we’ve had a vehicle in stock for a while we’ll do a review on it and it will sell pretty much straight away.”
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
