ASA Adjudication on Lexus (GB) Ltd

Ad

A national press ad, for the Lexus RX 400h; text stated "THE RX 400h. PERFECT FOR TODAY'S CLIMATE. (AND TOMORROW'S) … Driving the world's first luxury hybrid SUV makes environmental, and economic, sense ...". Small-print at the bottom of the ad stated "... CO2 emissions 192 g/km ...".

Issue

Four complainants challenged whether the claims "PERFECT FOR TODAY'S CLIMATE.  (AND TOMORROW'S)" and "Driving the world's first luxury hybrid SUV makes environmental, and economic, sense" were misleading, because they implied that the car caused little or no harm to the environment and gave a misleading impression of the car's CO2 emissions in comparison with other vehicles.

CAP Code

Response

Lexus (GB) Ltd (Lexus) said the headline was intended to operate on two levels and the word Climate was used to convey that the RX 400h was appropriate for the current economic market and suitable for todays environment. They said, due to the current economic market, the premium car segment was generally suffering and, to respond to that, Lexus were offering attractive finance packages on the RX400h. They asserted that, to help further push that aspect, the price point was prominently placed in the sub-heading. They believed the body copy further emphasised that finance offer because it stated more accessible than ever, meaning it was now more affordable.

Lexus said the RX 400h featured Lexus Hybrid Drive technology and they were in the unique position of offering large, premium, Hybrid Drive vehicles. They asserted that consumers were increasingly being educated that hybrid cars made more environmental sense because they impacted adversely on the planet less than standard vehicles. Lexus argued that nowhere in the headline or body copy was there a claim stating that the vehicle caused little or no harm to the environment. They said the purpose of the ad was to educate readers that the Lexus RX400h was a hybrid SUV car that was more environmentally friendly than standard premium SUVs; they said, because the main photograph was a picture of an SUV, that made clear the claim related to other standard premium SUVs.

Lexus said, on receipt of the complaints, they had amended their ad immediately to state "THE RX 400h. PERFECT FOR TODAYS ECONOMIC CLIMATE. (AND TOMORROWS)" and removed the claim "Driving the world's first luxury hybrid SUV makes environmental, and economic, sense".

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted Lexus response. We considered, however, that the headline claim "THE RX 400h.  PERFECT FOR TODAY'S CLIMATE.  (AND TOMORROW'S)" implied the vehicle's emission rate was low regardless of category, and readers were likely to understand from it that the car caused little or no harm to the environment and had low emissions in comparison with all cars, which was not the case.  We noted the body copy stated ... Driving the world's first luxury hybrid SUV makes environmental, and economic, sense ...", but considered that that was likely to reinforce the impression that the car caused little or no harm to the environment and was unlikely to clarify for readers that the headline claim was intended to refer to the economy as well as the environment.  Because of that, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead.

We noted Lexus had amended their ad on receipt of the complaints and welcomed those amendments.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness), 19.1 (Other comparisons) and 49.1 and 49.2 (Environmental claims).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Lexus not to imply in future that a vehicle caused little or no harm to the environment and had low CO2 emissions in comparison with all vehicles if that was not the case.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)