Harmful

All ads should be prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and society. They must not cause serious or widespread harm or use approaches that are likely to encourage socially irresponsible behaviour.

This includes not causing fear or distress without justifiable reason (and where justified, the fear or distress should not be excessive) and not condoning or encouraging unsafe practice.

We have upheld complaints about harm and social responsibility against a diverse range of ads including:

Alcohol – e.g. not encouraging excessive or unwise styles of drinking
Motoring – e.g. not encouraging motorists to drive irresponsibly such as at high speed or without a seatbelt
Health – e.g. not discouraging essential treatment of serious or prolonged ailments
Body Image – e.g. not encouraging an unhealthy diet or lifestyle including the depiction of extremely thin models

Particularly special care should be taken when ads are addressed to, or depict, children or young people. Ads that fall in to this category should contain nothing that is likely to result in a child’s physical, mental or moral harm and they should not exploit a child’s credulity, loyalty, vulnerability or lack of experience.

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Latest rulings

Sparks Information PTE Ltd t/a Hunting Sniper
- Upheld
- Social media (paid ad)
- 03 April 2024
A paid-for Facebook ad for Hunting Sniper, a mobile app game, featured realistic footage of harm to animals, which was likely to cause widespread offence and unjustified distress.
Gamehaus Network Technology Co Ltd
- Upheld
- App (paid ad)
- 24 January 2024
An in-app ad for a mobile game featuring an incestuous relationship, suggesting a child had been sexualised and groomed by an adult and portraying a child in a sexual way was likely to cause serious and widespread offence.
FunPlus International AG t/a Funplus
- Upheld
- Game (mobile/app)
- 17 January 2024
An in-app ad for a mobile game was likely to cause serious offence by trivialising and condoning sexual assault and sexual violence.
Shenzhen Guangming District Kangshuo E-Commerce Firm t/a Health Support Store
- Upheld
- Website (paid ad)
- 01 November 2023
A paid-for ad on AliExpress was irresponsible for featuring a model that appeared unhealthily thin and made medicinal claims for an unlicensed product.

View all rulings

Harmful

All ads should be prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and society. They must not cause serious or widespread harm or use approaches that are likely to encourage socially irresponsible behaviour.

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Latest rulings

Sparks Information PTE Ltd t/a Hunting Sniper

Gamehaus Network Technology Co Ltd

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