ASA Adjudication on Channel 5 Broadcasting Ltd

Ad

A TV ad for whisky on sale at Morrisons featured Alan Hansen walking his shopping trolley in a snow scene, past a bottle of Glenmorangie in the foreground. On-screen text showed a saving of £10.

Issue

A viewer, who saw the ad on Five during the Disney film Santa Who?, complained that an ad for an alcohol product was unsuitable for broadcast during a family film, which was likely to appeal particularly to audiences below the age of 18.

BCAP TV Code

BCAP TV Scheduling Code

Response

Channel 5 Broadcasting Ltd t/a Five (Five) stated that the film was more accurately described as a family-oriented comedy and the audience profile of the film showed it appealed to a wide audience and was not skewed particularly to children. They stated that the film was shown on Fives main terrestrial channel on 22 December 2009, from 16.04 to 17.54, and the 10 to 15 audience at that time, indexed against all individuals that made up the all-homes audience, produced an index of 107.56, which was below the 120 limit set out in ASA guidance as the relevant restriction index for alcohol ads. In addition, they stated that they had previously broadcast the film in 2005, 2007 and 2008, during the Christmas period, at broadly similar times, and it had never previously indexed above 89. They said it was not normal practice for Five to show ads for alcohol products during family-orientated movies but they believed the scheduling of the ad in question was compliant, as it did not fall into the clearly delineated restrictions for alcohol ads set out in the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) Codes.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA noted that the guidance on the scheduling of TV ads for alcohol products which contained more than 1.2% alcohol by volume, such as Glenmorangie, stated "the ASA will normally regard the restrictions relevant to any programme where the 10 to 15 audience, indexed against all individuals that make up the relevant comparator audience (e.g. an all-homes audience or a multi-channel homes audience) produces an index of 120 or more". We noted that Santa Who? had been broadcast on a terrestrial channel and considered that the relevant comparator audience was an all-homes audience. We noted that the index was 107.56, which was below the 120 limit and that when the film had been previously shown during a similar time of year and at a similar time, the index had also been below the 120 limit.

Although we noted that the audience index for Santa Who? was higher on this occasion than in previous years, we considered that the film did not have particular appeal to audiences below the ages of 18 and concluded that an appropriate timing restriction had been applied on this occasion and the ad was suitable to broadcast during Santa Who? at that time.

We investigated the ad under CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rule 7.4.7 (Use of scheduling restrictions) and TV Scheduling Code rule 4.2.1 (a) (i) (Children and young people), but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action necessary.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)