A New Zealand used-car store was forced to remove an online video after a viewer complained it was too risque.
But the ad’s use of sexual innuendo — it featured social media star Kiedis Haze saying drivers would “look like a MILF” in a Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid — isn’t what the country’s Advertising Standards Authority took issue with.
Haze’s ad-libbed claim that Portage Cars offers the “easiest finance in the world” is what got it banned, according to the New Zealand Herald. The advertising authority said it found no problem with the sexual references but ruled the ad misleading because the financing claim couldn’t be supported.
The store argued that the video was intended to be a humorous car review and shouldn’t be taken seriously.
“Clearly the saying ‘easiest finance in the world’ was said in jest, saying something is the easiest in the world is a common turn of phrase in New Zealand,” Portage Cars wrote.
General Manager Craig Rutherford said the store now avoids advertising about financing so as not to run afoul of the law but it will continue to use sexual humor because it is effective.
“They’re working,” Rutherford told the New Zealand Herald. “If we’ve had a vehicle in stock for a while we’ll do a review on it and it will sell pretty much straight away.”
