Jaguar Car Advert 'Glorified Speed And Encouraged Dangerous Driving'

Jaguar has been forced to pull four adverts after claims they glorified speed and encouraged dangerous driving.

The advertisments, which feature Jaguar's new £85,000 flagship F-Type sports car, show some of the luxury car maker's models being driven on open roads.

But the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the online ads from Jaguar focused too much on speed and showed cars driving dangerously.

The watchdog said the "sound of engines being revved, high tempo music and the use of blurred lines following the cars" emphasised high speed and acceleration.

It also said the ad contained clips of Jaguar cars driving on what appeared to be public roads in a manner that would be "irresponsible and illegal on a public road in the UK".

"The ASA noted Jaguar's comments that the ad was designed to highlight the technical features and abilities of the cars and that they believed speed was not the main message of the ads. However, we considered that the overall impression of the ads was a focus on the speed and acceleration of the cars," it said.

"We understood that Jaguar said the cars were being driven at reasonable and controlled speeds. However, we considered that the cars appeared to be driving at high speeds and the acceleration of the cars was further emphasised by the sound of engines being revved, high tempo music and the use of blurred lines following the cars in ads (a) and (c)."

Jaguar, whose parents company is the Indian-based Tata Motors, repsonded by saying the advert was filmed along closed sections of road in Switzerland but mistakenly omitted a caption that said: "Filmed on closed roads with a professional driver. Do not attempt. Always obey local speed limits".

It also said cars were in fact travelling slowly and denied that the ads demonstrated "unsafe or irresponsible driving", adding there was no indication that speed limits were broken.

The ASA still ruled the ads must not appear again in their current form and told Jaguar "not to portray speed as the focus of an ad in future... [and] not to portray driving behaviour that might encourage motorists to drive irresponsibly in future."