ASA Adjudication on Battersea Arts Centre

Ad

The front cover of a brochure that previewed events at the Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) showed a caricature of Tony Blair sporting a Hitler-style moustache. Text in the bottom corner of the cover stated “PARENTAL ADVISORY EXPLICIT LANGUAGE”. One of the pages inside the brochure gave details of a forthcoming performance; a similar image of Tony Blair was accompanied by the heading “HITLER WROTE 20 POP SONGS …HAVE YOU HEARD THEM? Theatre de Cunt Developed at BAC”. Further text gave a synopsis of the act and included “Under their hip-hop alias rODIUM, Theatre de Cunt and guests will be performing post-show gigs …”.

Issue

The complainant found the word "Cunt" in the brochure, which was available in the foyer of the theatre and also sent out to the BAC's mailing list, offensive and believed it to be unsuitable to be seen by children.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

The BAC said, in their opinion, the text in the brochure was acceptable.  They explained that the group, Theatre de Cunt (TDC), were a theatre company who explored how the political climate had created a mass disaffected youth.  They pointed out that the name was a play on words on a type of theatre company, for example, Theatre de Complicite or Cirque de Soleil, which TDC viewed as being out of touch with young people, and the name was an attempt to reclaim theatre for a group of people normally excluded from traditional theatre.  They said there was also a political agenda behind the name; TDC were making a statement about the role of mass media and the name was an attempt to create a brand that could never be bought or exploited by mass culture.

The BAC told us the brochure was available in their foyer, distributed to other contemporary arts venues across London and posted to customers on their database.

Assessment

Complaint upheld

The ASA understood the complainant was concerned because the BAC organised youth theatre (therefore the word "Cunt" in the brochure might be seen by children in attendance) and also that the brochure was mailed out to people who might have families.  We considered that the word "cunt" was unsuitable for inclusion in marketing material that could be viewed by children and that, because it could be seen by children, the brochure was irresponsible.  We also considered that the word was likely to cause serious or widespread offence.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 2.2 (Responsible advertising), 5.1 (Decency) and 47.2 (Children).

Action

We told the BAC not to use the word "cunt" in future marketing material.