ASA Adjudication on Momentum Pictures

Ad

A TV ad, for the cinema release of the film Hannibal Rising, featured brief scenes from the film. These included an axe; a child screaming; a leering man's face splashed with blood; a blood filled syringe; a man being dragged across the floor; an explosion; a scythe on someone's throat; a man being stabbed in the neck; a man being tied to a tree; and the character Hannibal Lecter in a mask. The voiceover said, "As a boy he saw unspeakable things. His name is Hannibal Lecter. This is only the beginning. Hannibal Rising. In cinemas now."

The ad was given a post 7.30pm restriction by the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC).

Issue

19 viewers, all of whom saw the ad on ITV1 at around 8.15pm during the science fiction drama Primeval, complained that the ad was too disturbing and violent to be shown before 9pm and during a programme with strong family appeal. Five of the complainants said their children, aged between 5 and 12 years, were upset or worried by the ad.

BCAP TV Code

BCAP TV Scheduling Code

Response

Momentum Pictures (Momentum) said there were a number of TV ads for the 18 certificate film, which varied in explicitness and in the timing restrictions applied by the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC). They said the post 7.30pm ad was intended to illustrate the adult content of the film without directly showing the film's more sensitive content. They explained that the ad seen during Primeval was based on the post 9pm version, but with the more explicit violence edited out in order to soften the impact of the material. Momentum said it was not their intention to create ads that would cause offence or distress. They believed that they had taken a responsible approach to marketing the film, which they said had presented them with challenges because of its uniquely sensitive content.

ITV believed the various ads had been given appropriate timing restrictions. They said they had followed their compliance procedures and broadcast the post 7.30pm version after 7.30pm. They told us that they received two complaints about the ad.

The BACC said the nature of the film meant that the ad had to contain adult themes, but they believed they were presented in a way that an audience watching at 7.30pm and beyond would find acceptable. They said the ad was noticeably different from the post 9pm version because they had removed the more graphic scenes, including most of the interpersonal violence, and revised the sound effects and voiceover in order to reduce the sense of threat and menace. They said the ad consisted of a series of quick scenes, with the violence insinuated by the shot of the blood in the syringe, the man being dragged across the floor, the scythe and the axe. They said the only violence featured was between adults and not children. The BACC believed the name and theme of Hannibal Lecter was wellknown and the associated books and films had lessened the impact of what was shown in the ad. They felt any ability to offend was further lessened because it was clearly a film ad with a strong sense of drama and could not be expected to relate to viewers' experience. They believed the low number of complaints supported this. They said they were satisfied that the ad did not contain a level of violence or menace inappropriate after 7.30pm. They believed the scheduling restriction also ensured the ad would not be seen during children's programming or by unsupervised young children at other times before 7.30pm.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA acknowledged that Momentum and the BACC had edited the more violent scenes from the post 9pm version of the ad in order to make it suitable for broadcast after 7.30pm. Although we noted little actual violence was shown in the ad, we considered that the overall cumulative effect of the brief and fast changing film clips was still one of menace and fear. We considered that the strong sense of threat portrayed in the ad was unsuitable for an ad shown before 9pm when young children were likely to be watching TV. We concluded that the ad should be restricted to post 9pm, when viewers were aware that more adult material was likely to be broadcast.

The ad breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 7.3.1 and 7.3.6 (Distress), and 7.3.7 (Use of scheduling restrictions) and CAP (Broadcast) Rules on the Scheduling of Advertising 4.2.3 (Treatments unsuitable for children). We also investigated the ad under CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 6.1 (Offence) and 6.4 (Personal distress) but did not find it in breach.

Action

If the ad is returned to air it should carry a post 9pm restriction.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)