Ofcom bans follow-up Renault Megane spot

by Jeremy Lee, Campaign 06-Aug-04

Ofcom has banned the Publicis TV ad for the Renault Megane 225 following complaints from viewers that it mocked people with illnesses, such as Parkinson's disease, which result in body tremors.

The spot featured a number of people in everyday situations shaking uncontrollably as the car passed by.

It was designed to be a follow-up to last year's "shake it" campaign, where people were shown wiggling their bottoms to a Groove Armada track.

Ofcom over-ruled the BACC, which had approved the ad on the basis that the repeat use of the soundtrack would make it clear that it was an extension of the campaign, and banned the ad.

DDB London's spot for the Volkswagen Touran was also censured. The ad features a number of badly behaved children who, to the tune of Let's Misbehave, are seen breaking a window, drawing on a wall and dropping a mobile phone into a fish tank.

Thirty viewers complained that the ad could result in copycat behaviour.

Ofcom ruled that the actions of the children were not deliberately malicious but found that the ad was inappropriate for children under the age of eight. It has therefore been banned from transmission around children's programmes.

Heineken has been forced to change its ad starring Ray Liotta following an Ofcom investigation.

The Clemmow Hornby Inge spot showed a stranger appearing at the door of a man who had left some of his pint in the pub the night before. The stranger explained this was a waste as the beer was now 5 per cent alcohol by volume rather than 3.4 per cent.

Ofcom agreed that the central message - that the higher alcoholic strength made the beer better - breached the Advertising Standards Authority code and the ad has been banned.