May 24, 2007

Lexus Hybrid Ad Banned For Misleading Environmental Claims

A Lexus magazine ad campaign for the Lexus RX 400h has been banned by the UK’s advertising watchdog, MediaGuardian reports. The ad headline read: “High performance. Low emissions. Zero guilt.”

Complainants made to the Advertising Standards Authority said that the claims misleadingly implied that the car caused little or no harm to the environment.

The watchdog ruled that Lexus could not make such comparisons and claims of environmental friendliness in future car ads if they could not be proved.

“We weren’t trying to be misleading and any changes that are needed, we will certainly make,” the Scotsman reports a Lexus spokesman as saying. “It wasn’t that we were trying to make a claim that was unsustainable. The car has low emissions compared to, say, a Land Rover or another 4×4. That is the message we were trying to communicate.”

Lexus has been intensifying its hybrid advertising recently. Last month,  it was the sole sponsor of an online-only bonus issue of Th Week. In March, Lexus showed off its hybrids as the first advertiser on CNN’s free ad-supported mobile site.

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