Audi Says A5 TDI Suicide Ad Is a Fake

2010 Audi A5 TDI Picture

An Audi A5-themed ad, making the rounds on the Internet and showing a businessman trying to commit suicide, is definitely not the work of Audi, the automaker says.
A purported Audi ad of a man unsuccessfully trying to kill himself in an Audi A5 TDI is a fake, confirmed Audi of America on Friday in an e-mailed message to Inside Line.

"You or your staff might have caught wind of a purported Audi TDI commercial that made its way around the Web this week featuring [an] attempted and failed suicide," said Audi of America spokesman Christian Bokich. "This video was not commissioned, funded or produced by any Audi organization worldwide."

The video shows a man in a parking structure who attempts to kill himself by carbon monoxide poisoning. He threads a hose from the exhaust into the window of the Audi. When the fuel gauge reads empty, the man appears to be dead. But he wakes up. "Good for the environment. Good for you," says the tagline to the ad. The man is then shown trying to choke himself by rolling up the window of the car on his neck.