Partner Gonzalo Mon was quoted in the Luxury Daily article “BMW ordered to alter ad claiming High Beam Assist ‘never dazzles’.” On July 13, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), an independent regulator of United Kingdom media, ruled that a BMW radio ad for the 1 Series with High Beam Assist made a misleading and unverifiable claim. Mr. Mon notes that, “Unlike the detailed decisions published by National Advertising Division – the U.S. equivalent of the ASA – ASA decisions tend to be fairly short. Unfortunately, that means that we don’t have a lot to go on. The question here is how literally consumers interpret the phrase ‘never dazzled.’ In other words, do consumers understand that to mean 0 percent of the time? The ASA determined that consumers would, indeed, read this as an absolute claim, meaning that there would literally never be a time when drivers were dazzled.” He goes on to explain that, “Obviously, no advertiser likes to be told that they can’t make a certain claim. But it’s important to note that the ASA didn’t say that the technology didn’t work. BMW is still able to tout the benefits of technology – they just need to tailor their claim a bit more so that it’s less absolute.”

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Luxury Daily quotes Partner Gonzalo Mon on BMW High Beam Assist Advertisements