The Advertising Standards Authority has warned Honda Motor Europe not to make speed a central element of its car advertising.

The watchdog has intervened and banned an advert which Honda used earlier this year to promote its brand, featuring the Civic Type-R, NSX, HR-V,  HondaJet and ASIMO robot.

The advert featured intermittent red lettering and brief clips of Honda products against a salt-plain backdrop.

The red lettering stated messages about pushing yourself to do more and faster, and to exceed the limits you thought you had.

The ASA ruled the advert encouraged dangerous or irresponsible driving because it felt the speed of the cars was a central element.

However it rejected a second complaint that it demonstrated the cars’ handling outside of safety and encouraged viewers to break the speed limit.

 

Honda Motor Europe said the ad was created in an environment far removed from public roads and in order to inspire people to push their perceived limits using a speed-reading technique. In doing so, it challenged viewers to push themselves through speed-reading to catch up with the increased speed of the text appearing on screen. They said that was directly related to the sentiment of pushing oneself and that you could go faster than you thought. They said any reference, explicit or otherwise, to speed did not relate to anything other than speed-reading the on-screen text.

Prior to showing, the advert had been passed by Clearcast, an organisation which clears adverts for broadcast in the UK, which felt the message of the ad was clear – the innovation of Honda's new cars.