Advertising Standards warn LTDA “not to denigrate Uber” following advertising complaint

The Licensed London Taxi Association have been warned by the Advertising Standards Authority “not to denigrate Uber” following it’s social media campaign earlier this year.

The taxi industry’s biggest trade representative was warned following a complaint made against its campaign questioning Uber’s relicensing in May 2018. The paid-for Facebook advertisement by the LTDA stated, “Uber- unsafe for passengers, unsafe for road users. Why trust them both with your data?” Beneath that text, appeared a photo which looked like a CCTV image depicted an arm reaching out of the window of a car and grabbing a purse from a pedestrian’s bag. The single complainant contacted the Advertising Standards Authority and asked whether the ad denigrated Uber. Following the claim made the LTDA did not provide a substantive response to help the advertising watchdog with enquiries and the complaint was upheld. In a statement on the ruling the Advertising Standards Authority said: “The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told the LTDA not to denigrate Uber. We referred the matter to CAP’s Compliance team.”