A million pound TV ad for tyre maker Michelin has been banned for making misleading environmental claims.
The UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has barred the French firm from repeating the expensive TV advert, which featured an animated fuel pump sucking money from people’s cars.
The voice-over stated “there was a town held captive by an evil fuel pump … but along came the Michelin man, who reminded them the right tyre changes everything … Michelin EnergySaver can help to save up to 80 litres of fuel”.
On-screen text at the bottom of the screen stated: “*Calculated on the basis of rolling resistance tests conducted by TÜV SÜD Automotive in 2009 on 15 key sizes for the European market. (Michelin was first in 13 sizes and second in 2 sizes.)”.
However, 15 viewers challenged whether the claim "can help to save up to 80 litres of fuel" was misleading, because the ad did not specify what period of time the claim related to.
Michelin Tyres told the ASA its ad had been accepted for broadcast by advisers Clearcast, who said their motoring consultant had confirmed the claim was over the life of the tyre (45,000 kilometres).
Clearcast explained that given the large amount of fuel the ad claimed could be saved, they said they considered this was a statement of the obvious and accordingly approved the ad.
However, in its ruling to uphold the complaint, the ASA stated: “The ASA noted Clearcasts comments. Although we accepted most viewers would understand the claim "save up to 80 litres of fuel" related to a significant period of time, we nonetheless considered the ad should make clear it was over the life of the tyre.
“Because the ad did not state the period of time the claim related to, we concluded it was misleading.”
The advert cannot be repeated in the UK.
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