ABC News Online - Monday 25 March 2002

Calls for Govt to sack Advertising Standards board

The Pedestrian Council of Australia is calling for the Federal Government to sack the Advertising Standards board because of its failure to ban dangerous motor vehicle advertisements.

The call comes as the Parliamentary Secretary for Transport, Senator Ron Boswell, moves to introduce a draft code to ban car advertisements which promote speeding and unsafe driving.

Pedestrian Council of Australia chairman Harold Scruby says many motor vehicle advertisements effectively negate the millions of dollars spent on government awareness campaigns promoting safe and responsible driving.

"Most of the ads today have some sort of subliminal idea that the vehicle can well outdo any speed limit in Australia and on top of that, is capable of doing any form of dangerous driving and getting away with it.

"It's just outrageous, we lose 2,000 people on Australia's roads every year and every government is doing its best to change that and yet the advertising industry is telling us the exact opposite."