Toyota's Grand Theft Auto-style car commercial has been banned by the advertising watchdog after it ruled that it glamorises reckless and dangerous driving.
The multimillion pound ad campaign stars a computer-animated character who lives in a world clearly inspired by games such as Grand Theft Auto and Need for Speed.
In the ad, the hero jumps in a Toyota GT86 sports car and races at high speed through city streets, startling pedestrians, weaving through traffic, evading police in pursuit and crashing through gates.
The big-budget campaign includes a 60-second TV commercial, 90-second cinema ads which launched to coincide with the release of the latest James Bond movie Skyfall, and print ads.
The Advertising Standards Authority received two complaints about the campaign, which was created by Saatchi & Saatchi, from viewers who saw it on YouTube and felt it was irresponsible and condoned dangerous driving.
The ASA's ruling relates to the ad appearing online and in cinemas, but not to the television version.
Toyota said it did not condone or encourage unsafe driving and that they had "paid particular attention to the Highway Code", despite the ad being "clearly set in an animated, artificial and fantasy environment".
The Japanese car maker said the ads did not show normal driving circumstances on public roads and the scenes were "impossible to emulate".
The ASA disagreed and said that despite the ad being set in a fantasy world, the roads, public spaces and the car featured in the ad were "not significantly different from those in the real world".
"We therefore considered that the driving featured, and in particular the speeds shown, could be emulated on real roads," the watchdog said.
The ASA also said that the "highly stylised nature" of the ad actually "glamorised the reckless manner in which the car was driven".
"Because we considered the ad portrayed speed, and the way the car could be handled in a manner that might encourage motorists to drive irresponsibly, we concluded that the ad was irresponsible and condoned dangerous driving," it said.
The ASA said that the ad must not appear again without major changes so as not to "portray speed or driving behaviour in a way that might encourage motorists to drive irresponsibly in future".
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