Ad description
A digital video poster for the film “Predator Badlands”, seen on 6 November 2025, began with what appeared to be a large, armoured alien character, which resembled a human but had a distorted head shape and face, and a muzzle over its mouth. It was holding aloft a smaller, human figure, which had been severed in two and whose bottom half was missing, exposing their severed spine. The smaller figure was seen dropping their arm.
In the next scene, the large alien character was shown holding a sword, with large red on-screen text that stated, “WELCOME”. Then in a forest scene, the alien was shown flighting a moving tree creature, with large red on-screen text stating, “TO A WORLD” , before moving to a close-up of the large alien character’s face and a disc-like weapon that had been shot and was moving out towards the viewer. The next scene also featured a close-up of the alien’s face and further large red on-screen text stated, “OF HURT”. The creature’s face had a distorted bone structure without a nose, circular pale green eyes, sharp fangs in its mouth and brown reptilian-like skin. In the next scene, the alien character was seen from behind, jumping with its sword towards a large, black, dragon-like creature that had its mouth open and was baring its teeth. An end-frame featured the film release details, and a static, cartoon-like image of a figure in armour, and a mask, with what appeared to be the torso of a woman, with wires protruding from her bottom half holding a large gun, attached to the back of the armoured figure.
Issue
Two complainants, who believed the image was inappropriate and disturbing for young children, challenged whether the ad was unsuitable for outdoor display.
Response
The Walt Disney Company Ltd t/a Twentieth Century Studios believed they had prepared the ad with a sense of responsibility to consumers and society when taking account of certain factors. They said the character depicted in the first scene which been severed in two was not human but a robot (a ‘”synth”), and was visually distinct from a human. They said the fact that the robot only had a half a body further emphasised its non-human nature. They also said the image appeared for less than two seconds within a 10-second trailer, which minimised its impact and exposure.
They said the film was rated 12A and the ad had been designed with that audience in mind. They said they did not consider the character or imagery in the ad was likely to cause particular harm or offence, given the film’s rating and the brief, stylised nature of the scene.
They submitted the ad to the media owner, although there was no formal review process for this particular ad format. In the absence of a formal approval process, they said prior versions of the artwork had been sense checked with independent third parties and amended to reflect feedback, which they believed showed a willingness to adapt creative materials to meet standards of social responsibility.
Assessment
Upheld
The ad appeared as an outdoor poster and was therefore untargeted and likely to be seen by people of all ages. The ASA understood the film was rated as a 12A by the BBFC and considered that care needed to be taken by the advertiser to ensure the scenes featured in the ad were suitable for a general audience, which included younger children.
The first scene of the ad featured a large alien-like figure, which had a distorted face and head and was wearing what appeared to be a muzzle, holding up the top half of a dismembered smaller human-looking figure by their head, with what appeared to be their spine exposed and protruding from their torso. The smaller figure’s hand dropped to its side as though it appeared to die. We considered the alien appeared menacing, the scene depicted violence and implied that it had dismembered the smaller figure.
Whilst we acknowledged Twentieth Century Studio’s comment that the smaller figure was not actually a human, but rather a “synth” robot, we considered that was not clear from the ad, and that the figure was likely to be interpreted as a human. We further considered that the realistic depiction of the smaller figure’s severed torso and exposed spine was gory and likely to be disturbing to younger children.
We also considered that the close-up depictions of the larger character’s face, which had a distorted bone structure without a nose, sharp fangs, brown reptilian-like skin, and non-human eyes, which were staring directly into the camera, following a depiction of a fight scene, accompanied by the words “WELCOME TO A WORLD OF HURT” in big red letters across the screen, would also have been likely to be disturbing and frightening to younger children.
For those reasons, we considered that the ad was likely to frighten and cause distress to some children, was therefore unsuitable for display in an untargeted medium and concluded that it breached the Code .
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 1.3 (Social Responsibility) and 4.2 (Harm and Offence).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told The Walt Disney Company Ltd t/a Twentieth Century Studios to ensure that ads which were likely to cause fear or distress for young children did not appear where they were likely to see it.
