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Mario Kart 8 Anti-Gravity RC Racer

Engine noises "sold separately."

Ad Alert

Mario Kart 8 Anti-Gravity RC Racer

The Mario Kart 8 Anti-Gravity RC Racer is pretty cool. With the push of a button, it goes from regular cart racer to “wheels-up anti-gravity racer,” which is the variation pictured above. “Accelerate for awesome drifts, hairpin turns and 360 spinning action just like in the (Nintendo Mario Kart video) game,” says the voiceover in a recent commercial that shows the toy speeding through a house (while perhaps an unseen family pet runs for its life).

But one thing this awesome race car does not do — despite the engine noises in the commercial — is go vroom, vroom. And while a disclaimer that appears on the screen all of five seconds discloses, “Sound effects added. Product makes no sound,” a self-regulatory body that monitors advertising aimed at children recently found this disclosure lacking.

Citing guidelines that “(c)opy, sound and visual presentations should not mislead children about a product or performance characteristic,” the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) recommended the removal of engine noises from the commercial or the addition of an audio disclosure stating that the toy does not make race car sounds.

The advertiser, JAKKS Pacific, Inc., said it “will continue to take CARU’s guidance on this and other matters into account in all of our future advertising,” according to a CARU press release.

Find more of our coverage on toys here.


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