ASA Adjudication on Southern Railway Company Ltd

Ad

A TV ad for New Southern Railway featured Loca Toledo, a Mexican wrestler character in cloak and tights, enthusing about British trains. He danced and ran alongside a moving train leaving the station platform and ran alongside a moving train while looking in through the window at a passenger.

Issue

One viewer objected that the ad was likely to encourage or condone irresponsible behaviour, because it depicted a man running alongside a moving train, which was a dangerous activity that could be copied by children, particularly in light of reported accidents.

BCAP TV Code

Response

Southern Railway Company Ltd (Southern) stated that the ads were filmed according to health and safety regulations and the film crew and actors were given a full safety briefing before filming the adverts.  They did not believe that the ad enticed dangerous behaviour, but, following the complaint, they had subsequently edited the ad and removed the scenes showing the character running alongside the train.

Clearcast stated that they had viewed the advert and considered the actions of the main character.   They had considered that young children, who would be more likely to emulate such behaviour, would be supervised by a parent or guardian and therefore unlikely to be able to copy the character.  They nonetheless decided to place an ex-kids time restriction upon the advert as a precautionary measure.  They felt that the Mexican wrestler was a surreal character in a realistic setting and that his character and behaviour would be perceived by commuters as odd and strange.  They did not believe that his conduct would be seen as normal behaviour, nor that the ad encouraged or condoned irresponsible activities.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA noted the Loco Toledo character was shown very briefly running next to a moving train at the start of the ad, but noted that when he danced, it was next to a stationary train.  We considered that the main focus of the ad was to show a comic characters over-the-top enthusiasm for train travel and trains themselves, rather than wishing to promote a daredevil character who memorably enjoyed attempting risky or extreme behaviour; for example, Loco Toledo was not shown attempting to board a moving train.  Although we considered that the brightly coloured clothes and the characters outlandish enthusiasm might appeal to some children, we noted that Clearcast had applied an ex-kids restriction, which we considered was sufficient to ensure the ad was not broadcast around programmes of particular appeal to children.  In addition, we considered that younger children would be unlikely to be left unsupervised in a train station and did not consider that younger children in particular would be likely to copy Loco Toledos brief actions of running alongside a train.

Although the ASA understood that Southern had since removed the scenes showing the Loco Toledo character running alongside the train, because we considered that children who saw the ad were unlikely to emulate the act of running alongside a moving train, and because none of the scenes involving Loco Toledo showed him attempting to board a moving train, we concluded that the ad was not likely to encourage or condone irresponsible behaviour.

We investigated the ad under CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 6.7 (Harm and offense), 7.4.2 and 7.4.7 (Children), but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action necessary.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)