Canada Cracks Down on Ads Showing Unsafe Driving

In a move to make the roads of Canada safer, Advertising Standards Canada has handed down a ruling that ads cannot depict cars exceeding the speed limit, car chases in a residential setting or other unsafe driving practices.

A story in Canada's Globe and Mail details the ruling and clarifications to existing guidelines It also gets comments from various car manufacturers about their ad policies and how the new rules may affect them.

But where it gets interesting is a paragraph later in the story:

And some of the worst offenders are not even in the car business. An ad for the new Forza Motorsports 3 video game – which is rated E, suggesting it is acceptable for all ages – features cars swerving out of control, rolling over, and smashing into each other. Some car industry executives point to Hollywood movies and even tire manufacturers as airing unsafe depictions.

In looking closer at the ruling on the ASC site, the clarification seems directed at motor vehicle advertising and not at virtual world racing or games. We have contacted ASC to see if video game publishers would be prohibited from advertising any type of unsafe driving in their games, which could eliminate advertising for many rally or racing games. We'll post an update if and when we get an answer.

Update: Janet Feasby, vice president of standards for the ASC, repsonded back to our inquiry about video game ads, and as suspected the guidelines were designed for ads showing the depiction of driving cars and other motorized vehicles and not to the depiction of driving in products such as a video game.

However, she did offer a clarification:

Clause 10 (Safety) of the Code applies to the advertising of any category of product. It states that: “advertisements must not without reason, justifiable on educational or social grounds, display a disregard for safety by depicting situations that might reasonably be interpreted as encouraging unsafe or dangerous practices, or acts.

 

If ASC received a complaint from a consumer alleging that driving or racing scenes in a commercial for a video game could encourage unsafe behaviour, ASC would review the commercial against Clause 10. And, as directed by Interpretation Guideline #1, “in assessing the impression likely to be conveyed by an advertisement, ASC will take into consideration the use and application in the advertisement of the elements of humour and fantasy.”