Otago Peninsula Community Board chairwoman Christine Garey was concerned recently to see 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 put together by Tourism New Zealand and the New Zealand Transport Agency on an in-flight entertainment system.
Those videos have been part of an extensive campaign to cut the number of crashes caused by foreign drivers in New Zealand, and included messages to keep left.
The peninsula has struggled with visitor drivers driving badly.
In January, after she lobbied the airline and BMW, it was agreed text would be added to the advertisement making it clear New Zealand had left-hand driving.
Ms Garey said yesterday Air New Zealand told her the airline had decided to remove the BMW advertisements from its screens.
"I have to congratulate them,'' she said.
"They could see the inappropriateness of it, given they're doing all this other work.
"We're delighted; we are impressed with BMW's response and we really congratulate Air New Zealand for their stance.''
An Air New Zealand spokeswoman last night said only: "The piece of BMW content you are referring to has come to the end of its cycle on Air New Zealand's domestic aircraft and has now been changed out.''
As well as the end of the advertisement, Ms Garey said after a request from her board she had taken the issue of advertisements showing cars driving on the right to a Wellington meeting of the national Community Boards Executive Committee she had been appointed to.
The committee requested the issue be put on the agenda of the Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) National Council, which meets on March 18.
She had talked to LGNZ president Lawrence Yule and Automobile Association motoring affairs general manager Mike Noon, both of whom had agreed with her board's stance, she said.
