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The Ford motor company has hit the roof over the latest anti-speeding television ads, in which a late-model Ford Falcon loses control on a rural road and somersaults into a ditch.
The company wants the $2 million ad to be removed from air immediately and has called in its lawyers, who may seek a possible High Court injunction.
The ad, which started screening last Sunday, shows a middle-aged man at the wheel of a Ford Falcon. It is designed to initially seem like an ad for a car - until the spectacular wipe-out. Ford says the ad has similarities to its own campaign for the Falcon XR6 three years ago.
But LTNZ is defending the new ad and has told Ford it won't be pulled. "We are on hugely solid ground," said LTNZ advertising manager Paul Graham.
LTNZ says speed kills 120 people a year and injures another 2600.
Although the car's Ford badge and other insignia have been removed from the vehicle in the advertisement, Ford says the car is clearly identifiable as a Falcon.
"We do have concerns which we are raising with LTNZ and we are looking at our marketing, legal and PR options," said Ford spokeswoman Clare Ponton. "We take customer safety very seriously ... the new XR6 will have dynamic stability control, the new Mondeo has knee bags ... that's why we are so concerned about this."
Ponton said feedback about the ad from Ford customers and even the odd Holden driver had been negative. One longtime Ford fan said she was "horrified to see the ad" and had questioned how a car had gone off a dry road, on a clear day, with no other traffic around and travelling at what seemed like a reasonable, legal speed.
Ponton said the ad breached a longstanding agreement between the Motor Industry Association and LTNZ - that manufacturers and models of cars used in road safety ads were not identified.
MIA chief executive Perry Kerr said the ad was particularly disturbing when LTNZ was asking manufacturers to include stability control on all new vehicles - for which there had already been a huge pickup by manufacturers.
"That's the next big initiative to save lives ... and here they are potentially picking on a model that has got it. We're not happy. We're disappointed."
But Paul Graham of LTNZ said the ad had been extensively researched in audience tests - both before and during its production - and there had been no issues.
"We set it out to make it look like a car ad - yes. We're obviously trying to make it fit in that same space, but there was never any intention to emulate their ad; just to be generic.
"Car ads are all very similar, in showing the driver enjoying the moment, the curving road ahead of them...
"We are after an audience that likes a performance car, enjoys the moment of driving, considers themselves a superior sort of driver - it's the area we want to be."
Graham expected the ad would be on screen for the next 12-18 months.
He said he was "not absolutely certain" of the agreement between LTNZ and the MIA. "Perhaps it's a gentleman's agreement... we made all efforts to make them non-identifiable, in general."
