ASA Adjudication on Premier Inn Hotels Ltd

Ad

A TV ad for Premier Inn featured Lenny Henry in a parody of the film The Shining. He was casually dressed in a checked shirt, jacket and jeans, and was shown in a menacing fashion attacking a door with an axe and putting his head through the hole, whilst saying "Here's Lenny". The ad then showed another, smartly dressed, Lenny Henry on the other side of the door, who calmly said "A bad night's sleep at some hotels can really make you grumpy". The tone of the ad and the music then changed to a relaxing one as the smartly dressed Lenny Henry described why guests would have a good night's sleep at Premier Inn.

The ad was cleared by Clearcast who considered a timing restriction to keep it away from children was not necessary.

Issue

Eight viewers, who had seen the ad on the children's channel Nick Jr, challenged whether it was suitable to be broadcast at times when children might see it.

BCAP TV Code

BCAP TV Scheduling Code

Response

Premier Inn Hotels Ltd (Premier Inn) said the ad had been cleared by Clearcast without any scheduling restrictions. However, as the target audience for the ad was adults, they had not intended or approved the broadcast of the ad on Nick Jr or any other dedicated children's channel. Premier Inn said they were not aware that the ad had been aired on Nick Jr until notified of the complaints, but understood that a technical error by the broadcaster meant that the ad had been aired on the channel, despite the fact that it was not included in the agreed media schedule. They said they had reconfirmed their instructions to their media agency that the ad should be broadcast on channels viewed by their target adult audience, rather than those aimed at children.

Premier Inn said, notwithstanding the scheduling error, they did not believe the ad would cause harm or distress to the majority of children. The ad was a light-hearted parody of the film 'The Shining', which would not be understood by children. They pointed out that the ad did not contain any violent content; no one was shown to be hurt or injured, or in a threatening or dangerous situation, and there was no inter-personal violence. Premier Inn argued that the scene where Lenny broke down the door with an axe would be considered amusing by most viewers of any age, and they pointed out that any mood of unease was quickly dispelled by the scenes that followed of Lenny in a comfortable hotel room. They said overall the ad created a comic atmosphere as opposed to one that was menacing or scary.

Clearcast said they considered that the ad was light-hearted and comedic, and therefore a timing restriction was not necessary. They said the opening scene quickly resolved to Lenny looking relaxed and at ease next to the grumpy Lenny. In addition, Lenny Henry was a household name and people would be used to seeing him acting out different comedy characters. Clearcast said they believed the reference to 'The Shining' would be understood by adults only, and therefore the fear of the scene would be lost on children.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted that the ad had been broadcast on Nick Jr in error. Nevertheless, we considered that the aggressive behaviour portrayed by Lenny Henry at the start of the ad, and the menacing tone and music of that scene, were likely to frighten and cause distress to younger children. We also considered that, because young children would not understand the ad's reference to The Shining, they would be unlikely to appreciate the comic context in which the menacing Lenny appeared, and could find him threatening. We therefore concluded that an ex-kids timing restriction, which would have meant that the ad should not have been shown in or around programmes made for, or specifically targeted at, children, should have been applied to the ad.

The ad breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 7.4.6 and 7.4.7 (Harm and distress) and CAP (Broadcast) Rules on the Scheduling of TV Advertisements rule 4.2.3 (Treatments unsuitable for children).

Action

The ad must not be broadcast again in its current form in or around programmes made for, or specifically targeted at, children.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)