Paris (AFP)
The Dutch manufacturer of electric bikes Vanmoof on Tuesday denounced an opinion from the French advertising regulatory authority asking it to modify a spot deemed anti-car.
The advertising spot, authorized and already broadcast in the Netherlands and Germany, depicts images reflected on the bodywork of a sports car. Old smokestacks of smoking factories, traffic jams, an accident are awarded, then the car liquefies to make room for a brand bicycle.
Vanmoof suspects the Professional Advertising Regulatory Authority (ARPP) of defending the interests of the automotive industry.
"The ARPP's decision is quite disturbing. It prompts us to question the legitimacy of this body which apparently defends the interests of certain sectors and also of certain companies," Alfa-Claude Djalo, manager, told AFP. corporate public relations. "We have the feeling of having been censored".
Vanmoof has no plans to appeal or take the matter to court. The company "prefers to give public visibility" to what it "considers as a drift".
"Some plans present in the reflection of the car appear, in our opinion, disproportionate and bring the entire automotive sector into disrepute by blaming it alone (...) while creating an anxiety-provoking climate. They must therefore be modified, "wrote the ARPP in a letter consulted by AFP.
"We refuse to make any modification, because we do not want to distort our video and make it a watered-down version that would please the French automotive industry," said Mr. Djalo.
"For the broadcasting of a television advertisement, the ARPP delivers before broadcasting a systematic notice (24,320 notices in 2019). But in the end, the responsibility for broadcasting lies with the media and platforms," Stéphane Martin told AFP. Director General of ARPP. "This is why the instrumentalization of censorship is only a well-known device by certain actors for having free publicity," he accused.
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