THE ADVERTISING Standards Bureau (ASB) banned a Bentley television advertisement last year that showed the new Continental GT Speed travelling at 330km/h on a closed section of the Northern Territory’s unrestricted Stuart Highway.

Assisted by the Northern Territory tourism organisation and carrying a foreword explaining the controlled circumstances of the advertisement that was planned for global release, the ASB agreed that the location had no speed limit.

But it said other parts of the world which had speed limits meant the ad “would breach the law of any state or territory in the relevant jurisdiction in which the advertisement is published or broadcast dealing with road safety or traffic regulation, if such driving were to occur on a road or road-related area”.

The ad was banned after receiving one complaint from Australia’s Pedestrian Council chairman, Harold Scruby.

Taking to social media after hearing Bentley had to withdraw the advertisement, the driver of the car, former V8 Supercars driver and driver safety training principal John Bowe, said: “Are we such a nanny country that this Bentley ad I did can’t be shown?”

“The whole thing was conducted under the safest conditions known to man and the whole intro sets the scene. It’s more dangerous driving down St Kilda road!

“Lord save us from the do-gooders!!! Don’t you reckon?”

By Neil Dowling