The fastest pickup truck currently on sale in Australia has breached the advertising regulator.
An advertisement for RAM 1500 TRZ was pulled from the air by the Advertising Standards Community Council following community complaints.
The ad shows the turbocharged 1500 TRX pickup truck driving over sand dunes, plowing through puddles and speeding along a gravel road, as the owner tries to show a friend why he needs one. Such a powerful truck.
Excerpts from the claims outlined in the Advertising Standards dashboard report include:
- “The potential for damage to drivers, passengers, cars and the environment is very real. This is not a safe
proves to be a responsible driver and sets a very bad example.” - “Driving a heavy, fuel-hungry vehicle in this way, just for fun, is not environmentally appropriate as it wastes resources as well as causes damage to the land it passes through.”
- “It is despicable, excessively powerful and aggressive while driving. Look, dodge [sic] ram towing a giant trailer up a steep hill or towing a bogged down vehicle would actually be great, but this ad is really gross in the way it tries to appeal to people who are already aggressive and behaving. Their driving behavior is the opposite of what we need, for our planet and for us humans.”
In response, Ram Trucks Australia told the Advertising Standards board that it “does not encourage anyone to drive recklessly and/or unsafely, or in any way to violate any laws relating to road or driving”.
“Accordingly, we disagree with the claimant’s way of describing the Advertisement in such a way,” it said.
Although the panel disagreed with all of the complainants, it said the ad – which has been on the air since late 2022 – depicts unsafe driving and “deliberate destruction of the environment”. and serious”.
Ram will be forced to cut the ad again if it intends to run again.
It’s not the first automaker to be dragged into advertising for seemingly insignificant ‘negligence’.
Ford was forced to cut back the first time Ranger Raptor advertising for what the complainant calls “extreme acceleration” and by Volkswagen ‘Too powerful for TV’ ads for commercials Amarok was revised after fouling the regulator.
FCAI in 2018 promised to review automotive advertising standards after persistent complaints from a longtime road safety activist.
THAN: Read the full Ad Standards report here
THAN: Everything Ram 1500
