Telling someone to 'shut up' isn't polite

Jean Gemmell, PAT

General secretary of PAT Jean Gemmell said: "This flies in the face of 'stranger danger' advice given to children to protect them from abusers and abductors."

"The advert could also encourage children to talk to adults in a rude and aggressive way.

"Good manners might seem old fashioned to some, but they are still important. Telling someone to 'shut up' isn't polite," she said.

A number of parents and teachers had expressed their concerns to the union, she added.

Ms Gemmell said she hoped the advert could be modified to show the child knew the driver.

"Certainly the language of the child needs to be modified," she said.

Advert cleared

Toyota said the advert had been checked and cleared by the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre.

Marketing director Paul Philpott said: "It shows a little girl running out of school and getting into the back of a new Corolla.

"The female driver - who you think is the girl's mother - turns to the young girl in the back and says, 'Jenny, isn't that your mummy over there?'.

"Viewers will then realise that the little girl has got into a car belonging to the mother of one of her friends, so that she can be associated with the new Corolla," he said.

The driver and little girl were clearly well known to each other as the driver used the little girl's first name and knew the mother of the little girl, he said.

"I do not believe, therefore, that we are in any way encouraging young children to get into cars belonging to people that they do not know."