ASA Adjudication on Volkswagen Group UK Ltd

Ad

A national press ad, for the Golf GT TSI, showed an image of the car on a split background. The left hand side of the ad pictured a dimly lit forest with wolves and the text "High performance". The right hand side of the ad showed a brightly lit meadow with a deer and the text "Low emissions". Text underneath the car stated "it also does over 38 mpg, and emits just 175g of CO2 per kilometre. More power, less pollution. Better to drive. Better for the planet." Text at the bottom of ad stated "CO2 emissions for the Golf GT TSI are lower than other engines with similar power outputs."

Issue

Four complainants challenged whether the claim "Low emissions" gave a misleading impression of the Golf GT TSIs emissions in comparison with other vehicles, because they understood that, in a total emissions comparison, it was in the fifth most polluting band out of seven.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

Volkswagen Group UK (Volkswagen) said the purpose of the ad was to communicate that the Golf TSI had low emissions for a car of its performance level: they pointed out that the claims "High performance" and "low emissions" had equal prominence and should be read together.  They said the body copy of the ad explained the high performance levels of the Golf TSI: they also explained that the value of carbon dioxide per kilometre emitted, 175g, was 41g/km less than a competitor's car which had the same power output.  They pointed out that the footnote of the ad made clear that the carbon dioxide emissions for the car were lower than other engines with similar power outputs and they supplied a comparison table to support this.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA acknowledged that the new TSI engine had lower carbon dioxide emissions than other cars with a similar performance.  Nevertheless, we considered that readers were likely to understand the claim "low emissions" to mean the car had low emissions when compared to all cars.  Because it did not, and because the comparison with vehicles delivering similar performance was not prominent or linked to the headline claim, we concluded that the claim could mislead.

Action

The ad should not appear again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)