A Swiftcover.com commercial featuring Iggy Pop has been taken off the air after the U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority deemed the commercial as misleading because the company does not actually offer insurance to people within the entertainment industry (see: musicians).
The commercial featured Iggy Pop golfing, saying he had “more interesting things to do,” than to waste his time getting his insurance from somewhere other than Swiftcover on the Web. The company said they chose Pop for the commercial, not based on his career, but because of his reputation for living life to the fullest, according to CDC News.
The ASA received over a dozen complainants about the Swiftcover ad, because the company’s website said people working within the entertainment business were not eligible for an insurance policy, and using Pop as a spokesperson was false advertising. According to the ASA ruling, they recommended the commercial be pulled off the air, “Because the policy was promoted by a well-known musician, which might lead some viewers to believe the policy covered those who worked in entertainment, when it did not, and because Iggy Pop did not have a policy with Swiftcover, we concluded the ad was misleading.”
Swiftcover is still planning on using Pop in future commercials, despite the allegations against them for deceiveing customers with Pop’s appearance in their ads. A spokeswoman for the company, Tina Shortle, told The Guardian that, “Iggy Pop and swiftcover.com have made motor insurance interesting for a change, increasing awareness of swiftcover.com and sending our sales soaring by almost a third, so we would be crazy to lose Iggy.”
Hey Tina, how about insuring musicians? That would solve all of this.
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