ASA Adjudication on LEGO Company Ltd

Ad

A TV ad, for Lego Bionicle Inika Heroes, showed animated robot figures shooting laser weapons.

Issue

The complainant, whose two year old daughter saw it after 'Noddy' during children's early morning TV, objected that the ad was frightening to young children and should carry a timing restriction.

BCAP TV Code

BCAP TV Scheduling Code

Response

LEGO Company Ltd (Lego) said they had not intended the ad to be conceived as frightening to young children.  They explained that the ad was targeted at children between five and nine years old and that animation was used to add excitement and drama to the product; they believed the approach was nothing more extreme than seen in other advertising or TV programmes aimed at children.  Lego explained that the trading audience for targeting children ("kids") grouped together all children up to 15 years old. They pointed out that although the buying agency tried to target programming aimed at a five- to nine-year old audience, the individual channels retained full control of their scheduling, hence the transmission of the ad in a programme normally associated with pre-school children. Lego said they would try to avoid any future Bionicle commercials being aired around programming aimed at pre-school children.

The BACC said they believed the content of the ad did not warrant a timing restriction.  They argued that the robotic figures in the ad were very similar to those in childrens programmes such as Transformers and to those featured on the childrens channel Jetix and that children would therefore be familiar with them.  They pointed out that they had approved many similar ads in the past without a timing restriction.  The BACC endorsed Legos comment that no restriction existed to prevent the ad being transmitted around programmes for very small children.  They said, even if they had considered it merited a restriction, the only available constraint would be to keep the ad away from all childrens programmes, which would be of no use to the advertiser.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA noted the ad was targeted at children between five and nine years old.  We also noted Lego and the BACC considered the animation to be similar to that in other childrens programmes and child-targeted advertising. We noted the figures, although brandishing laser weapons, were not depicted as engaging in combat or other violent acts.  We noted Legos assurance that they would try to avoid any future Bionicle ads being shown around pre-school programming. We considered that very young children might not be familiar with programmes such as Transformers or the channel Jetix, but acknowledged the difficulty faced by advertisers and broadcasters in ensuring that ads aimed at school-age children would not be shown during programmes aimed at very young viewers. We considered that an ex-kids restriction, designating the advertising inappropriate for children under eight years of age, would be excessive given the target age range for the toy.  We acknowledged that it was difficult to anticipate the effect the ad was going to have on very young children and that we had received one complaint only. We concluded that the ad was unlikely to cause distress to children and that a scheduling restriction was not warranted in this instance.

We investigated the ad under CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code Rules 7.3.6 (Distress), 7.3.7 (Use of scheduling restrictions) and CAP (Broadcast) Rules on the Scheduling of Advertising rule 4.2.3 (Treatments unsuitable for children) but did not find it in breach.   

Action

No further action required.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)