Video: Fiat ad under fire

A raunchy new ad campaign from Italian car brand Fiat is unlikely to be used in Australia or in the US – but for very different reasons.

The campaign has been put together for the US launch of the 500 Abarth city car, and it features some risqué subject matter and some risky driving manoeuvres.

The racy ad, known as "Seduction", features an attractive Italian-speaking woman accosting a geeky looking man that she catches ogling her behind. The ad goes on to show the woman dip her finger in the foam on top of the man's coffee, splattering it on her cleavage and drawing the man closer to her suggestively.

US media commentators are speculating it will be too racy for US regulators. But while it's the sexual innuendo that will get the US hot under the collar, in Australia it's the glorification of speed that's expected to earn social - and eventually official - condemnation.

The 60 second ad winds up with a 500 Abarth performing some raucous driving and tyre-screeching stunts, including a handbrake turn through an intersection – and Fiat says it's the ending, rather than the hormone-charged antics of the actors, that will stop it being used in Australia.

"It's not the sexy first half of the advertisement that would be a problem here, it's the exuberant driving including handbrake turns in the second half," Fiat says.

Fiat Australia spokesman Edward Rowe told Drive: "We could use [the ad] on the website, but we probably wouldn't use it on television."

Meanwhile in the US, USA Today writer Chris Woodyard wrote: "We wouldn't be surprised if Fiat has trouble getting this TV ad on the air in some places."

US motoring site Motor Authority writes: "We doubt you'll see this on television in America, since it's far too... provocative for our puritanical sensibilities..."

AOL Autos editor in chief David Kiley used to be the editor of advertising industry magazine Adweek. A report from AOL quotes Kiley as saying the US has "much stricter standards" than places such as Europe or South America, and he suggests that the ad for the 500 Abarth probably breaches those standards.

"The other issue you have in the US is that religious-based 'family' organisations will start issuing press releases and organising boycotts if they think an ad is corrupting on some level, or has too much sexual innuendo."

Fiat US CEO Olivier Francis is quoted by AOL Autos as saying: "I am considering running it as a TV advertisement too, but I am not sure. It may be too much."