An interactive MINI advert which appeared on a newspaper internet site has landed MINI in hot water with the ASA (Advertising Standard Agency) in the UK.

The animated promotional banner showed a close-up of a man sat at the wheel of a MINI, driving down the road - including instructions for surfers to “FLOOR IT” using an interactive pedal.

When users pressed on the pedal icon the car in the graphic accelerated until the driver’s face appeared to ripple with the G-Force caused by the speeding.

And the ad finished with the words:

NOW WITH EXTRA OOMPH THE ALL NEW MINI ONE MINI COOPER MINI COOPER S AND MINI COOPER D

The ASA said it accepted that the ad was only shown to people who clicked on the pedal and not those who were just browsing the site and also took into account the fact the ad was “surreal” and that a Mini could not get up to the speeds shown in the graphic.

However, it added:

We nonetheless considered that the ad encouraged users to interact with it and cause the man to be shown travelling at excessive speeds.
We considered that the ad made speed and acceleration the predominant message and could be seen to encourage speeding.

The ASA ruled the ad had breached the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) code clause 10.1 about safety that states ads should not “encourage or condone unsafe practices”.

And the ad was also deemed to breach three motoring codes.

Ad agency Glue London, responding to complaints on behalf of BMW, claimed marketing campaigns were

aimed at people who enjoyed the Mini’s sense of fun and cheekiness.

And maintained that

speed and acceleration were not the predominant message of the ad,

but that it was intended to

generate interest in the launch of the new MINI range and to promote the new MINI engine, which had improved emissions and fuel consumption.