ASA Adjudication on Entertainment Film Distributors Ltd

Ad

A TV ad, for the film 'Bangkok Dangerous', showed several different scenes of explosions and guns being shot; some of the guns seemed to be pointing at the viewer. Nicolas Cage's voice stated "Don't hesitate, anyone in the way goes down, and know when it's time to get out". The ad showed a bullet hurtling at high speed towards the head of a man sitting in a car. A voice-over stated "The only way out is to break all the rules ...". Nicolas Cage's voice then said "My name is Joe, this is what I do".

Clearcast applied a post 7.30 pm restriction to the ad.

Issue

One viewer, who saw the ad shortly before 9 pm, thought it was too violent to be broadcast at that time, particularly because it might have been seen by children.

BCAP TV Code

BCAP TV Scheduling Code

Response

Entertainment Film Distributors (EFD) said the ad did not target children and the programme during which the ad was broadcast did not attract a high proportion of child viewers.  They said children aged between four and 15 years made up less than 10% of the audience during the break in which the ad appeared, and that ad break represented less than 1% of all the TV advertising for that film.  They stated that, according to Broadcasters Audience Research Board (BARB) data, two-thirds of childrens viewing took place before 7.30 pm in August 2008, which was when the ad was shown.

Clearcast said they had seen several different ads for the film 'Bangkok Dangerous' and had attributed a range of timing restrictions to them.  They decided a post 7.30 pm restriction was required for the ad under investigation, to keep it away from young children who might not understand the action.  They felt that anyone watching TV after that time would realize that the ad was for a film and was therefore based in fantasy.  They pointed out that, although the ad featured lots of guns, shooting and bullets, the bullets were not shown to strike anyone or cause any damage.  They also pointed out that the ad contained no interpersonal violence, blood or scenes of injury or death.

Assessment

Upheld

Although the ASA noted the ad featured a lot of shooting and some of the guns seemed to be pointing at the viewer, we considered the violence depicted was not especially brutal and the bullet speeding towards a man's head was, in particular, stylised and unrealistic.  We considered the ad was acceptable for broadcast with the appropriate timing restriction.

We considered that the ad was unlikely to cause mental harm to children, because it did not present violence in a way which was likely to be seen as condoning comparable behaviour in real life.

However, because it showed a substantial amount of violence involving guns and portrayed a hitman theme, we considered the ad was inappropriate for young children and a post 7.30 pm restriction was not sufficient.  We concluded that a post 9pm restriction ought to have been applied, to minimise the possibility of young children seeing the ad.

The ad breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rule 7.4.7 (Children - Use of scheduling restrictions) and CAP (Broadcast) Rules on the Scheduling of TV Advertisements 4.2.3 (Particular separation of advertisements and programmes - Treatments unsuitable for children), but did not breach CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rule 7.4.1 (Children - Mental harm).

Action

The ad must not be broadcast again in its current form before 9 pm.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)