Mitsubishi’s UK sales and marketing unit is to screen a TV ad for the Lancer Sportback that authorities have ruled can only be shown after the 9pm ‘watershed’ so children, theoretically, don’t see it. The spot was originally commissioned by Mitsubishi New Zealand and filmed in Auckland.
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The campaign features a conversation between a young boy and his father as they take a drive in their new car.
The boy asks: “Where did I come from?” which instantly sends his father into that place of fear and trepidation only a parent can fully appreciate: how to explain the ‘birds and the bees’ to your child for the first time. Mitsubishi UK has retained the distinctive ‘Kiwi’ accents rather than re-voicing the ad for a British audience.
The rest of the advert focuses on the father’s description to his son from outside the car but, as the journey home progresses, each explanation inside the car is mirrored by events outside.
Clearcast, the company responsible for the pre-transmission examination and clearance of television advertisements, has not approved it to be shown on TV before the 9 o’clock watershed. The ad will appear first on Monday 9 February.
Mitsubishi’s sales and marketing head Lance Bradley, said: “Clearcast thought that the light-hearted innuendo throughout the ad could be seen as inappropriate – especially for younger viewers. We are happy to have the TV ad shown after the 9 o’clock watershed and will also be making the ad available through our website too.”
Mitsubishi UK has previously used a New Zealand ad for its L200 truck range. “They’ve produced them and then we’ve seen them and bought them,” a spokesman told just-auto.
He said the NZ humour appealed to the automaker’s UK management. “It’s a bit more tongue-in-cheek, a bit more risque, not as politically correct as the stuff produced over here.”
The New Zealand advertising industry has a reputation for innovative, boundary-pushing TV spots for cars. Some years ago, a Toyota truck ad caused controversy by including a common colloquial swear word, but was eventually cleared for transmission, after wide publicity.
Two decades earlier, another Toyota truck spot shot in Wellington was pulled after only a few screenings when local traffic chiefs claimed it would encourage dangerous driving in the city, and illegal use of a bus-only tunnel featured in the ad.
