Castrol’s oily ad campaign irks British motorists
By David Menzies
Castrol recently unveiled giant billboards on five major routes in London, England. Part of the scheme involved roadside cameras that would record the licence plates of cars just prior to flashing the car’s registration onto video screens embedded in the billboard. Along with the licence plate of the car, the recommended grade of oil for that particular car’s engine would be noted.
All of which is whiz-bang amazing, except for one pertinent detail: where in the world was Castrol getting its data pertaining to the cars?
Step forward, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.
Incredibly, the DVLA has been busily selling the information it has collected on the 34 million British drivers it has in its database. And apparently Castrol hired a marketing firm that had purchased this über-sensitive data.
For those keeping score, this is the second time the DVLA has ended up with copious quantities of egg on its face: The Mail newspaper previously revealed that the agency had recently sold motorists’ names and addresses to convicted criminals. Nice.
To add insult to injury, the Castrol ad campaign was also slammed by safety advocates. Kevin Clinton of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said the ads were “inappropriate” and as they could distract drivers thanks to the car’s registration information being illuminated upon billboards. As such, the placards were deliberately encouraging motorists to take their eyes off the road.
While the ad campaign was slated to run for two weeks, it was pulled on the fourth day due to public outrage. As well, the government has since launched an investigation.
In the meantime, surely British motorists are left wondering: in addition to the folks at Castrol and a cabal of convicted criminals, who the hell else has access to their confidential data?
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Posted by: Hadrian | 2009-10-04 11:14:53 AM
Should be no surprise. Age of the computer and collected (previously) private information. They let Big Brother take pictures of them every day as well. Should be no surprise that he wants to make a shilling by selling their collected information to other people who figure out how to use it against them, or at least make their own shilling from it.
If everyone had a GPS, they could probably pop their pictures up too, along with which pub they had lunch at, with whom, and how much they spent on it. Soon ....
Posted by: Steve | 2009-10-08 5:02:20 AM
The issue isn't so much that Castrol chose to use the information available. It is how many government's have a total disregard for the electorate's privacy and rights. This ongoing attack on law abiding citizens is the start of the undoing of democracy. I am glad to hear that Castrol is helping to raise public awareness.