Complaints Spur DaimlerChrysler to Pull Canada Ad

A Canadian television ad for the DaimlerChrysler Neon was taken off the air and reedited last week after viewers--mostly men--complained about its violent content.

The commercial showed a young couple walking down a street. As they pass a parked Chrysler Neon, the man turns to admire it.

At the same time, another woman passes between him and the car. Believing her boyfriend is leering at the other woman, the girlfriend slaps him.

The commercial was pulled last week after the auto maker received “a handful” of complaints, Mike St. Pierre, media relations manager at DaimlerChrysler Canada, said this week.

A new version now shows the woman giving her boyfriend a dirty look while he maintains a look of angelic innocence.

“We were not aiming to offend anyone. The ad was intended to be humorous,” St. Pierre told Reuters. Before going to air, it was well-received by a focus group, he said.

But a men’s rights advocate was surprised it was ever broadcast.

“Just turn this thing around,” Dan Stevelman, a member of the Calgary-based Men’s Educational Support Assn., told the Globe and Mail newspaper.

“Would the guy be right in slugging her? Of course not.” DaimlerChrysler, however, deserves credit for changing the commercial, Stevelman added.

The ad, created by Montreal-based agency Publicist BCP, was launched nationally in mid-October.

Complaints about it were made to the auto maker, as well as to Advertising Standards Canada, the advertising industry’s self-regulatory body. ASC reviews consumer complaints and provides guidelines.

ASC said it found nothing wrong with the commercial but forwarded the complaints to DaimlerChrysler, the world’s fifth-largest auto maker.

“It did provoke us to review the advertisement,” St. Pierre said. “We feel this reedit maintains the original intent of the ad. Overall, it’s still a clever ad.”