ASA Adjudication on Entertainment Film Distributors

Ad

A TV ad for Entertainment Film Distributors Ltd promoted a film called "Slither". The voice-over said "Welcome to Wheelsy. A quiet town of traditional values ...". The ad showed a police-man lying on the ground in front of a car with his head obscured and his legs shaking violently as a woman appeared to stick a pole into his head. A woman with blood around her mouth was shown banging on a window shouting "It's a family fun day!" and a child was shown smiling with blood also around her mouth. Large slug-like creatures were seen wriggling away from the camera in a field with gun-wielding men chasing them. The voiceover said " ... full of friendly neighbours" as a woman ran up and projected white slime out of her mouth. The film had a 15 certificate.

The ad had been cleared by the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC) with a post-9 pm restriction.

Issue

A viewer complained that she had seen the ad at 8.40 pm on Channel 5 and that it was not suitable for this time.

Response

Channel 5 said the ad had been shown before 9 pm in error.  They offered their apologies to any viewers who were offended by the ad being shown at this time and assured the ASA that they had a robust system in place to generally avoid this type of situation and that they would continue to endeavour that instances of this nature did not reoccur.

Assessment

Complaint upheld

The ASA accepted that the ad was shown in error and were satisfied that this was an isolated instance of incorrect scheduling.  However, we considered that it was inappropriate to show the ad before 9 pm as it was likely to cause serious offence to some viewers and distress to some children.

The ad breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 6.1 (Offence), 7.3.6 (Distress - children), 7.3.7 (Use of scheduling restrictions) and CAP (Broadcast) Rules on the Scheduling of Advertisements rule 4.2.3 (Treatments unsuitable for children).

Action

The ad should not be broadcast again before 9 pm.