A Dunedin woman has managed to get German motoring giant BMW to make changes to an advertisement on Air New Zealand flights that showed one of its vehicles on the wrong side of the road.
Otago Peninsula Community Board chairwoman Christine Garey was shocked to find an advertisement on a domestic flight to Dunedin showing a video of a BMW driving on the right-hand side of the road.
That was after she had travelled on an Air New Zealand international flight, where she viewed driver safety videos on an in-flight entertainment system, put together by Tourism New Zealand and the New Zealand Transport Agency.
Those videos have been one part of an extensive campaign to cut crashes and fatalities by foreign drivers in New Zealand, and included messages to keep left.
The peninsula has been one site that has struggled with visitor drivers driving badly. A meeting this week detailed some alarming driving seen by community board members.
Ms Garey said she was "appalled'' to see the advertisement on an aeroplane where there was a captive audience, including overseas visitors, in a gateway to the region.
Given road crashes and deaths last tourist season, "this has no place to be screened in such an environment''.
Ms Garey contacted BMW, the NZ Transport Agency and Air New Zealand after she returned.
She said she was pleased with the response from BMW, which had gone "above and beyond what they have to do''.
In an email response to Ms Garey, BMW Group New Zealand corporate communications manager said the company had instructed its advertising agency to replace the current text that had been on the video that said "filmed overseas''.
The new text would be in a larger font more easily visible to passengers, and would be superimposed on the clip and remain on screen during any car scenes.
Mr Finn told the Otago Daily Times the advertisement had already met all requirements in regards to warnings when the vehicle was shown driving on the right-hand side of the road.
The new text would say "filmed overseas, in New Zealand drive on the left''.
One of the other undertakings the company had made was to look to Australia and the United Kingdom for content in future, though that was not always applicable.
"We've reached a more favourable position than where things were, and we've definitely gone above and beyond in terms of industry expectations,'' Mr Finn said.
The text would not be in foreign languages, as there were too many possible languages.
The changes to the video would be put in place by March.
NZ Transport Agency southern regional director Jim Harland said he was concerned about the issue, and the agency would work with Air New Zealand and other agencies this year to ensure messages were as clear as they could be.
"Our design people would be raising that with their people, just to make sure we're as consistent as we can be.
"It's great people are taking road safety seriously.''
An Air New Zealand spokeswoman said the company was "committed to helping educate overseas visitors about New Zealand driving conditions''.
"We currently feature a series of driving guide videos on our in-flight entertainment systems and we recently teamed up with the NZ Transport Agency to develop a new interactive app which provides tips for driving in New Zealand conditions.
"The video is in four languages and while the app was launched in English, there are plans for additional languages to be added.''
Asked if the airline planned to make sure such an incident would not happen in future, the spokeswoman said: "Safety is paramount and non-negotiable at Air New Zealand and we have been in contact with BMW to ensure its advertisement is amended''.
An Otago Peninsula Community Board meeting on Thursday heard driving incidents by visitor drivers were a regular problem in the area.
Deputy chairman Paul Pope showed members a video on his mobile phone of a camper van swerving across both sides of the road around corners on Portobello Rd.
Ms Garey said after the meeting she did not want to "get at'' visitor drivers, but people needed to work together to deal with the problem.
About the advertisements, she said: "There should be a policy at a national level, at a government level, saying ‘You may not screen these'.''
