“We won’t change”: Federal Tyres Cairns claims competitor dobbed it in to Ad Standards Board

Smoke and rubber not approved by the Ad Standards Board

The co-owner of Federal Tyres Cairns is unrepentant after the Advertising Standards Board found his business’ recent television advertisement was in breach of community standards.

The advertisement for Federal Tyres Cairns features a man revving a truck outside one of the business’ stores.

Read more: How the Advertising Standards Board became the Facebook police for business

The truck remains stationary but there is loud engine noise and smoke from the rear of the truck.

The complainant to the ASB said: “I thought burnouts were illegal.”

The ASB noted clause 291 of the Australian Road Rules which provide: “A person must not start a vehicle, or drive a vehicle, in a way that makes unnecessary noise or smoke.”

In its ruling, the board found the level of noise and the amount of smoke generated by the truck’s rear tyres in the ad is in clear breach of the Australian Road Rules, and so upheld the complaint.

Federal Tyres Cairns co-owner Rick Lee told SmartCompany: “I haven’t had time to respond and I think it’s ridiculous.”

“The complaint would have been made by an opposition business.  They don’t tell you who made the complaint but I have a lot of opposition up here because I dominate the Federal Tyres brand here.”

Lee says he has even had one competitor make a negative advertisement about Federal Tyres Cairns tyre brands. 

He says the burnout was recorded when the truck was stationary and in a safe and controlled environment.

“We are a little bit extreme, we sell extreme tyres and we advertise in an extreme way,” he says.

“We have made a name for ourselves in being extreme but we are not dangerous.  We won’t change the way we make our ads because it’s consistent with what we do – we sell extreme tyres.”