A Dutch electric bicycle firm denounced on Tuesday a refusal by France's advertising council to approve a commercial that emphasises the environmental and health risks of car use.

Like other bike makers, Vanmoof is looking to capitalise on surging demand for bicycles in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has made many commuters wary of public transport.

The ad, which has already appeared in the Netherlands and Germany, begins by showing a futuristic sports car against the backdrop of vaguely ominous music.

The car's body begins reflecting factory smokestacks, a massive traffic jam and then a police car at the site of a car flipped over in an accident.

Finally the car begins liquefying in a scene worthy of a "Terminator" movie before reforming as a sleek Vanmoof bike.

"We feel like it's censorship," Vanmoof's France spokesman Alfa-Claude Djalo said of the decision by the Professional Advertising Regulatory Association (ARPP).

"It makes us wonder about the legitimacy of this group, which apparently defends the interests of certain sectors and certain companies," he told AFP.

The ARPP is a self-regulating body unaffiliated with the French state, but its approval of ads is more or less essential before any broadcaster will show them.

"Certain scenes reflected by the car appear to us as disproportionate and discredit the entire automobile sector by blaming it alone... all in an anxiety-provoking atmosphere," the ARPP told Vanmoof in a letter seen by AFP.

It asked the company to modify the ad, but Djalo said: "We don't want to distort our video and water it down just to make the French auto industry happy."

ARPP director general Stephane Martin told AFP that despite its rejection of the ad, "in the end the decision to broadcast is up to the media or platform".

"That's why this attempt to instrumentalise censorship is nothing more than an old gimmick used by certain players to have free publicity," he said.

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