Admiral Insurance has been forced to pull a seemingly innocuous responsive TV ad for multi-car insurance, after it was found that one of the cartoon vehicles portrayed – an army jeep – could not be covered by the policy.
The Advertising Standards Authority launched an investigation after one viewer, who said he was not able to insure his Land Rover because Admiral did not class it as a car, challenged whether the depiction of the jeep was misleading.
In response, Admiral said the animated vehicle was simply a representation of a generic four-wheel drive, rather than an exact reference to any specific vehicle.
It said it insured an extensive range of Land Rover models and Jeeps, which were more similar in design to the generic vehicle depicted in the ad. It even provided a spreadsheet showing the various brands and models of four-wheel drives it covered.
However, the ASA noted that Admiral’s evidence failed to show four-wheel drives were able to be insured under the advertised policy.
Banning the ad, the ASA told Admiral not to feature the jeep, or any other similar four-wheel drives in future ads for their multi-car insurance, unless it held documentary evidence they could be insured under that scheme.