Carsales.com takes rival Carsguide.com.au to court over ‘misleading’ ad campaign
Carsales.com is taking rival Carsguide.com.au to court over an advertising campaign launched this month, with Carsales asserting it is misleading and deceptive.
Carsales is arguing seven representations made in the campaign, which started on June 15, were false including the claim that carsales.com sells a consumer’s contact details to dealers, that carsales.com passes on a consumer’s details to dealers without the consumer’s knowledge and that a consumer’s details are provided to a range of dealers if the consumer enquires about a car using the website.
One execution of the campaign, created by BWM Dentsu, saw CarsGuide position a lightning embossed blimp directly over competitor CarSales’ head office in Melbourne alongside a billboard reading ‘Let lightning strike those who sell your contact details to dealers’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtiplbfRbEw
Still can’t spell LIGHTNING, Miranda? Repeat after me: LIGHTNING has no “E:”
Hi Rrrosco,
Thanks, I’ve fixed that typo up (on both posts) now.
Cheers,
Miranda – Mumbrella
Stupid stunt.
Hey Rrrosco, never made a typo? Rude.
People expect challenger brands to be aggressive and push boundaries, but this execution was in poor form.
Sure advertising is a ruthless business, however there are certain professional expectations that should be adhered to.
At what point does an agency leverage it’s integrity in order to get headlines and people talking?
Bear, I make lots of typos. Just ask me to type the word “switch” – invariably in comes out siwtch or swithc. Dunno why, it’s that word – I think to myself “here it comes, don’t get it wrong” . . . bugger!
But the same mistake was repeated on two days – and it’s one that is consistently made (particularly by the Yanks so by osmosis, starting to become the “norm” here). Just one of those things that annoys the crap out of me.
But you can bet your bottom dollar that next time Miranda writes the word “lightening” she’ll think . . . woops.
“carsguide.com.au has gone out of its way to imply we’re in the business of selling consumer contact information to multiple dealers. This is untrue. Consumer contact information is only provided to the owner of the specific car that is enquired upon and to no one else.”
To be fair, they didn’t really imply that it was sold to “multiple” dealers, and the dealer IS charged a fee when you submit an enquiry.
3 Years in the role and Carsguide are yet to truly impact the landscape, in fact Gumtree have overtaken them to be number 2! lol
[Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy]