Wrong side of the road Volvo ad riles

Viewers complained the ad was dangerous and misleading for visitors to New Zealand. Photo / Thinkstock

A television ad showing a car being driven on the right side of the road has drawn complaints claiming it's irresponsible given the spate of recent tourist road crashes.

The Volvo commercial shows a vehicle travelling through city streets in the right lane. It includes a disclaimer stating "overseas model and footage shown".

Several viewers complained to the Advertising Standards Authority, saying the ad was dangerous and misleading for visitors to New Zealand.

Complainant B Rietveld said: "The advert gives visitors to NZ a clear impression that this is acceptable driving standards for NZ when in fact it is illegal to drive as the advert suggests."

J Lawrence wrote: "considering the recent spate of accidents particularly with rental cars being driven by foreign tourists I think this ad is offensive, disgraceful and terribly misleading".

But the Authority said common sense would indicate it had been filmed overseas, and it was unlikely to cause confusion.

The complaints board chairman found "the majority of consumers would understand that the advertisement contained overseas footage and did not encourage unsafe driving practices and did not encourage a disregard for safety".

The link to recent road crashes was an "unfortunately unavoidable" coincidence, the chairman said.

In previous rulings, it had also been held that an unintended link to current events did not meet the threshold for a breach of the advertising code.

Previous cases included advertisements that were unintentionally upsetting to Canterbury earthquake survivors, including Civil Defence ads depicting the aftermath of a disaster.