MINI New Zealand are running a campaign at the moment to take late night test drives, they’d like to encourage customers to put a brand new MINI through its paces on the open road when it’s clear of the usual distractions – at night.

On the face of it, there’s no particular reason to take note of with such a campaign – it’s perhaps an odd idea to encourage drivers to test an unfamiliar car whilst trying to figure out the position of its indicator stalks, but we’ve seen worse – I just wouldn’t fancy being a sales person accompanying such a test drive.

No, the reason why this campaign has come to our attention is due to a print advert that appeared for one day only in the tabloid newspaper, Truth Weekender, to launch the campaign (see below).

The ad depicting highway patrol constable J. Miller receiving a lap dance whilst MINI conduct their night test drives, earned a Highly Commended acknowledgement from New Zealand’s Newspaper Advertising Bureau (NAB), who noted that the Truth Weekender was “obviously the perfect newspaper for such a risqué photo shoot!”. That’s a compliment right..?

The judges declined to award a winner for the October Ad of the Month, presumably because they were too busy booking late night test drives – or perhaps they’ve been trying to get hold of Constable Miller to join him for a night on the town..

campaign lap dancing mini newspaper new zealand night test drives