People say there is no accountability on the internet any more: that nobody ever admits they were wrong, because they don’t need to.

Well, in the spirit of owning up to errors (unnecessarily, perhaps), I wanted to remind you all about a blog post that appeared here in February, in which we praised the latest fantastic advert from car manufacturer Honda.

We loved the way the advert dealt with the concept of speed without, in our opinion, encouraging dangerous driving – a massive no-no according to the advertising regulators.

I used this exact phrase:

Of course, you can’t actually encourage people to drive quickly – as Toyota found to its cost in 2012– so Honda has neatly found a way around that, with an ingenious speed-reading trick.

Sadly, not everyone agreed. The Advertising Standards Authority was flooded with two – TWO – complaints, and therefore moved to ban the advert because it apparently encourages dangerous driving.

So there you go. I was wrong, and two – honestly, just TWO! – joyless interferers with too much time on their hands were right. The Honda advert is clearly not a clever piece of advertising, it is in fact a terrible influence on impressionable drivers, and we’re all going to hell in a handcart. Slowly, carefully, to hell in a handcart.

Here’s the advert again so you can judge its insidious impact for yourselves. Maybe don’t drive for a few minutes after watching, lest you are coerced into driving like a maniac.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8VlX4Ekk80

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