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False advertising? Mercedes in trouble over silly ad

08/08/2006, 9:45 PM

By admin

Remember that wacky Mercedes GL-Class TV ad we told you about back in May? It turns out the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus isn’t too happy about it. More to the point, the Council doesn’t like a scene in which a crash test sled is repelled after slamming into the side of the big SUV. While the ad features fine text that explains a real crash would result in significant damage, that isn’t good enough for the NAD. “NAD appreciates that humor can be an effective and creative means for an advertiser to highlight its product attributes and performance capabilities. However, humor does not relieve an advertiser of its obligation to support implied performance messages reasonably implied from humorous depictions,” the Council said in a statement. Mercedes, of course, disagrees. “It is farcical, and anyone seeing the spots can tell that it’s hyperbole,” said Donna Boland of Mercedes. “The typical consumer is smart enough to know that this is not a serious ad. We have received no customer calls on this ad.” In case you haven’t seen the ad, we have it after the jump for your viewing pleasure…

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08/08, 9:54 PM

posted by:

Bryan Detty

That commercial is about dumb. The same with those Toyota commercials that shows the Tundra Meteor proof, Or when they dump all of the crap ontop of the truck without a scratch.

08/08, 10:03 PM

posted by:

jay

This commericial is just funny…
I can understand how it would be misleading to some dumby who actually thinks the car in a crash would have a result like that or doesn’t read fine print.
A car wouldn’t stand up to a crash like that unless it was bolted to the ground, or weighed many times (we’re talking like hundreds of times) more than the other car. The car would slide atleast if it weighed maybe 5000 pounds, again unless it was bolted to the ground! And even then the structure would have to be made of some extrodinary metal that wouldn’t even show a scratch. I would be amazed if someone would actually believe this… but I guess some people do.
Again this commercial is just funny, it’s simply to be a joke. People don’t need to make a big deal out of something that is so silly.

08/08, 10:25 PM

posted by:

RottenFilms

You americans are crazy, you sue everybody and you can’t take jokes…

Seriously, we should ALL be laughing at this add, cuz thats what its meant to do, make you smile and hopefully buy the car, if the NAD think that this add will be misleading to the person who is intrested in this vechile, they should have their heads checked. Anyone who can afford this car obviosly knows that its just a joke and I think the NAD are insulting the intelegence of these buyers if they think that they will take this commercial seriosly.
Please, NAD Members, get a life.

08/08, 10:30 PM

posted by:

Paul D.

Sometimes people take themselves WAY too seriously…

08/08, 10:31 PM

posted by:

GM lovers are GAY

ya, just watch all funny car ads, laugh and then go on watching the shows or whatever after the commericals. Duhhh! I know whenever i watch those, i dont think like a dummie and believe everything. :-P

08/08, 10:35 PM

posted by:

Practical Made Perfect

That is a five star ad.It looks just like something I would have come up with!The only people who will be attacking this ad are stuffed shirts.

08/08, 10:50 PM

posted by:

anonymous

Actually, these ads kinda pissed me off. Sure, to an intellegent, or even average person, they are clearly hyperbole, but IMO advertisers seem to think they can say and do anything they want, and then put a line up at the bottom that no one can read for 20 milliseconds and say – see, it was a joke. Don’t get me wrong, this ad is far from the worst – and probably acceptable, but this practice of making false claims and then putting messages at the bottom should stop.

08/08, 11:09 PM

posted by:

Collin

NAD, go back to reading in the corner. This ad is GREAT. Any fool knows it is tongue-in-cheek. What a bunch a saps….what kind of a country are we runnin’ over here where anyone would seriously get bent out-of-shape with this spot? Jeeeez.

08/08, 11:20 PM

posted by:

J

Welcome to the nanny state . . .

08/08, 11:25 PM

posted by:

mbftw

The old G’s commercial had it going through walls…

why are we protecting the mentally incapable?

08/08, 11:31 PM

posted by:

Jon

It’s a JOKE everyone. It’s a shame that we have to be so handcuffed by beancounters, lawyers, and people with no sense of humor.

Nothing more than a muzzle.

08/08, 11:34 PM

posted by:

Bart Simpson

Fer Christ’s sake! The boat that was being unloaded was at least twice as long as the SUV! It was truly hyperbole and I can’t imagine anyone not getting that.

Who does the NAD thing they’re protecting? The “super retarded” I suppose…

08/08, 11:48 PM

posted by:

David

Oh c’mon…. lighten up! It’s damn funny and everyone knows it’s just for fun.

Unbelievable.

08/08, 11:48 PM

posted by:

British_Rover

Well the differance on the VW ad was that the VW was totaled. In this ad the GL is undamaged.

People have to take safety seriously and ads poking fun at safety just are not tolerated anymore.

08/08, 11:52 PM

posted by:

andydru

Oh c’mon British Rover lighten up, i hear your range rovers arent doing to well when it comes to reliabilty!

08/08, 11:59 PM

posted by:

scotty

….in a related case, NAD sues itself on its own name, having been known as a reference, for a single testicle.

08/09, 12:01 AM

posted by:

James

Rotten stop generalizing against all of us Americans, I as an American don’t believe most of this bull****. Granted alot of people in the us are lazy dumb fatasses. The kicker is most of them are probably foreign. I don’t like Mercs so this commercial doesn’t appeal to me. BMW will always be better than Mercedes.

08/09, 12:21 AM

posted by:

Jon

James, you’re a wanker.

08/09, 1:07 AM

posted by:

alex

seriously those toyota tundra commercials are almost the same except i see the difference in mocking a safety crash test. but rolling a tundra off a cliff or dumping tons of junk on a tundra unscratched is close.

toyota should get that guy from top gear to reproduce what they did on that red hilux for their new tundra.

08/09, 1:42 AM

posted by:

Onur

Only in U.S.

08/09, 1:46 AM

posted by:

Onur

It even sais “exaggeration” at every scene. What more do they want? To rate it “R” and air only on HBO or something?

08/09, 1:46 AM

posted by:

Comparing The Ratios

Each West German maker has their own unique approach.Benz is a bomb-tested Beirut transporter and that creates their backbone philosophy.That is why their interiors were the way they were for so long.A superbly competent transportation tool.They’re way more than that now,but BMW is a mainly sports type angle.

08/09, 1:54 AM

posted by:

Emmanuel

forever the king of this is not very fair to me. this is one of the very ones that never made sense to anyone and certainly not one who judges one to be fair. not BMW nor not Mercedes is one who does that so to be.

08/09, 2:26 AM

posted by:

Kevin

people take things to seriously.

08/09, 2:44 AM

posted by:

E M

Are we really that dumb…well reading some of the posts here…maybe we are.

08/09, 8:39 AM

posted by:

NW_Mike

Hilarious! I’d be willing to bet that most people opposed to this add simply don’t like SUV’s, no matter how they were done.

08/09, 8:42 AM

posted by:

4th yr kidergarten

even I got the humor…

08/09, 8:47 AM

posted by:

?

haha ^^ true

08/09, 9:40 AM

posted by:

1c3d0g

Ever heard of people assuming their own responsibilities instead of being breast-fed everytime? How about that, NAD? Will you do the thinking for them too? Gimme a break! :evil:

08/09, 9:48 AM

posted by:

Kevin

I think that this ad is clearly false advertising, and I think it’s terrible that Mercedes would ever mislead its customers in such a fashion. Just imagine, everyone who sees the ad will believe that they can drive around completely safely without worrying about getting hurt in an accident. Safety is a serious matter, and the average American consumer isn’t intelligent enough to understand that the commercial employs hyperbole so the government should ban this ad to keep its people safe. Moreover, most Americans can’t read anyway so the fine print at the bottom fails to provide justification for the ad. I don’t think that Mercedes should be allowed to advertise its products anymore. This is really that serious.

08/09, 10:03 AM

posted by:

Atomicbri

I hate to see the demographic of the people NAD is targeting when they say this ad has mislead them. Any person from the age of 16 and up would know this commercial is a joke. Look at it in its entirety and you can tell. COME ON FOLKS! Get a life over there at NAD. I am sure buyers of Mercedes Benz products are smart enough to figure out that their vehicle will not be that indestructible, nor will it be that cavernous, nor light things afire on every turn……

08/09, 10:19 AM

posted by:

Kevin

That is simply not true! You cannot assume that people will interpret this advertisement as a joke. Even if most people do, the NAD must act to protect those few who do not.

08/09, 10:25 AM

posted by:

Left Lane’s Impish House Guest

Emmanuel,put that in the King’s English?Wait a minute…

08/09, 10:26 AM

posted by:

Bryce

The Darwin Awards were created for the fools who think they can get hit by a crash test sled at 50mph and not get a single dent or scratch on their car. Anyone that stupid probably wouldnt live to the age to buy a car cause theyd forget to breath.

08/09, 10:28 AM

posted by:

Practical Made Perfect

I actually thought this was hugely refreshing for Benz to put out this ad,although their way earlier Tangerine Dream ads were also top drawer(just a different view).

08/09, 10:44 AM

posted by:

Practical Made Perfect

Possibly it was Kraftwerk.

08/09, 2:36 PM

posted by:

BartMack

Just so you know, it was the Test Dummy who complained.

08/09, 5:54 PM

posted by:

Dave

Kevin, you can take your tongue out of your cheek now.

08/10, 8:20 AM

posted by:

psuwayne

The problem with this country is that somewhere along the way we started screwing with “Natural Selection”. Some bleeding heart convinced the government that every person has the right to live, no matter how stupid, reckless, careless or heartless they are. So kids now learn that it’s ok to be inferior. It’s ok to underachieve. It’s ok to be uneducated. It’s ok to have no common sense. It’s ok to be dillusional and believe that a car is indestructable. Why? Because the government will force the entire country to come down to their level and coddle them. It’s not their fault. It’s that big, nasty Mercedes company that misled them into buying their car and driving it into a concrete wall because they said it wouldn’t be damaged.

In the wild, the weak die. An entire community doesn’t starve to death just because one member is incapable of feeding itself. The government would like us to believe that humans are above that kind of philosophy. Well, congratulations – by carrying the weak-minded on our backs for the past hundred years, we’ve established a rather healthy population of idiots. Apparently they’ve even formed a few organizations…. NAD comes to mind as a fine example.

08/15, 10:37 AM

posted by:

Anthony

Everybody is always getting so upset about EVERYTHING! It’s a damn commercial promoting the product. Anyone with common sense would know if that were to happen in real life, some serious damage would occur. If you are upset by that commercial, ytou clearly don’t have enough common sense to see that the whole commercial is simply an exageration on the toughness of the vehicle, then you don’t even need to be driving in the first place. The NAD and anyone else who was upset by that commercial really need to lighten the hell up and get a life.

 
 
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