Does Audi’s Holiday Advertisement Deceive Consumers?

Audi’s new advertisement compares its current model to an older Lexus model.

Audi’s most recent holiday advertisement has a few scenes highlighting the brand. The second scene starts with a man holding his hands over the eyes of a woman. He walks her to the driveway and removes his hands showing her a Lexus RX 350 with a yellow bow. At this point, she is, at first, happy, and then an Audi Q-Series drives past, and her looks turns to disappointment. That is nothing outrageous. Except one little detail. The Lexus is not a current generation RX 350. Rather, it is the prior generation. If Audi is going to show Lexus in a poor light, shouldn’t it, at least, show the current vehicle made by Lexus?

The 2016 Lexus RX 350 was completely redesigned for the new model year. It has been on sale since early November. Given that the advertisement is implying the Lexus was a Christmas present, would it not be fair to assume that a 2016 Lexus would be the car in the driveway?

In November, the 2016 Lexus RX 350 outsold the entire Audi Q-Series combined (Q3, Q5, Q7) by about two to one. We are of course talking about NEW Lexus vehicles, not older models compared to new Audis. You can view the advertisement here.

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