The Advertising Standards Authority in the United Kingdom has banned an advertisement for the Ford Mustang, ruling that the commercial “encouraged unsafe driving”.

The offending advert was shown in a cinema in July 2018, as well as on Ford UK’s YouTube channel. It drew a total of 12 complaints.

Ford responded that the intention of the advert was simply to “contrast the everyday frustrations of work life with the freedom of driving” a Mustang.

The ASA, however, upheld the complaint, ruling that many of the scenes in the advert “depicted people in distressful circumstances, which led them to feel anger over their particular ordeal”.

It furthermore chastised Ford for showing the Mustang being driven in “an abrupt manner”, adding that the poem (Do not go gentle into that good night, by Dylan Thomas) recited by the voice-over artist furthermore encouraged motorists to “drive in an aggressive manner”.

“We therefore considered that the ads suggested that driving was a way of releasing anger, which put the driver, other motorists and pedestrians at risk. As such, we concluded that the ads encouraged unsafe driving,” the ASA said, ruling that the adverts “must not appear again in their current form”.

Watch the advert below (although it has seemingly been removed from Ford UK’s channel, the Blue Oval brand’s French arm still lists it)...

Original article from Car