Ad description

A TV ad, for the film 'Jack The Giant Slayer', viewed on ITV1 at 7.35pm during 'Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway' and on CITV at 9.40am between 'The Sooty Show' and 'Curious George', began with a voice-over which stated, "Fee fie fo fum" over clips of two men creeping through a wood, and a cliff-face with giant gargoyle-like heads carved into it. In between swiftly-cut footage of a giant beanstalk smashing through a floor, a woman behind bars screaming "No!" and a shot of a giant beanstalk growing up into the sky, on-screen text stated "IF YOU THINK YOU KNOW THE STORY ... YOU ... DON'T ... KNOW ... JACK". Further footage included: a close-up of a giant's foot as it walked past a sheep; a close-up of a giant's eye accompanied by a growling noise; people being chased by giants through a wood and a castle; a giant throwing the sails of a windmill, which landed amongst people galloping away on horseback; a man, wrapped in pastry, lying on a table; a giant picking up a skewer and stabbing it down, followed by a shot of the man wrapped in pastry with the skewer protruding from just between his legs; a giant throwing a burning tree; a number of burning trees flying through the air over a castle; and a two-headed giant holding a man in one hand and grabbing another man as he swung towards him on a rope. On-screen text stated "JACK THE GIANT SLAYER", followed by a clip of a man and woman flying through a haystack and landing just in front of the pointed blade of a farming machine.

The ad was cleared by Clearcast with a presentation code which advised broadcasters to view it before considering whether it was acceptable for transmission in programmes of appeal to children under nine years old.

Issue

Two complainants challenged whether the ad was unsuitable for broadcast when young children might see it.

Response

Warner Bros. Entertainment UK Ltd (Warner Bros) highlighted that although Clearcast had not imposed a scheduling restriction, it had issued guidance to broadcasters that they should review the ad before scheduling it. They said their agency had, in addition, requested that broadcasters run the ad in the after-school period in order to direct it more specifically at their target audience of those of 12 years and upwards. They said they regretted that the ASA had received two complaints but they did not believe the ad was likely to frighten, distress or cause physical, moral or social harm to children.

Warner Bros considered instead that the overall tone of the ad was fun and exciting for children, with a sense of adventure conveyed through the rapid scenes, the lively voice-over and the use of upbeat, fast-paced music. The first words spoken by the actors emphasised that they were "looking for an adventure", and fast-moving darker scenes were interjected with more light-hearted humorous scenes which involved daylight and showed the characters appearing to be having fun and smiling. Warner Bros felt those scenes removed any potential tension or threat from the dark scenes. As an example, they referred to the scene in which the woman and man landed next to the blade. The characters were not in distress, but rather they appeared to be almost smiling, and the man spoke in a light-hearted tone. Warner Bros said that, in general, the actors' voices appeared confident and excited rather than overly distressed or fearful. They considered the exciting and adventurous tone of the ad accurately reflected the family, fantasy-adventure genre of the film.

Clearcast said they did not give the ad a timing restriction because they felt the action throughout was very much in the 'Harry Potter' vein of children's films. The dialogue, particularly the lines delivered by the character played by Ewan McGregor, was light-hearted with no menace, and as a result they considered there was little tension. They said that, in addition, key visuals of the giant were immediately softened by swift, light-hearted action adventure shots, as opposed to brooding dark footage. Whilst they had considered it unnecessary to impose a scheduling restriction, they did warn broadcasters that they might wish to review the copy for scheduling purposes.

ITV Broadcasting Ltd (ITV) said they accepted that, in light of the presentation code Clearcast had applied to the ad, it should not have been broadcast during programming on CITV aimed at pre-school age children. On learning of the complaint they had re-scheduled any remaining broadcasts of the ad. They said they had also reviewed their internal processes to automatically restrict all ads for movies and games from CITV pre-school programming unless specifically cleared by a member of the scheduling and/or advertising compliance teams. They considered the ad was appropriate for broadcast during 'Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway'.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA acknowledged the ad included various scenes in which characters were in situations of peril but noted that the ad moved rapidly and such scenes were interposed with lighter, more humorous scenes. We considered the upbeat soundtrack and generally confident tone of the characters created an impression of fun and adventure rather than tension, threat or menace.

We noted the guidance Clearcast had given broadcasters. We understood one complainant had seen the ad in the morning on CITV, during programming specifically targeted at young children, and we welcomed ITV's actions with regard to reviewing their internal processes in relation to showing such ads during children's programming. We also noted the other complainant had seen the ad after 7.30pm during 'Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway'. Whilst we considered the content of the ad was less in keeping with children's programmes than with programming typically broadcast around 7.30pm, we considered that because of the upbeat and exciting tone, the ad was unlikely to distress or cause harm to children, including those under nine years of age, in either of the contexts in which it was broadcast. We concluded the ad was unlikely to cause harm or distress to children of any age and had been scheduled appropriately.

We investigated the ad under BCAP Code rules  4.1 4.1 Advertisements must contain nothing that could cause physical, mental, moral or social harm to persons under the age of 18.  (Harm and Offence),  5.1 5.1 Advertisements that are suitable for older children but could distress younger children must be sensitively scheduled (see Section 32: Scheduling).
 (Children),  32.1 32.1 Broadcasters must exercise responsible judgement on the scheduling of advertisements and operate internal systems capable of identifying and avoiding unsuitable juxtapositions between advertising material and programmes, especially those that could distress or offend viewers or listeners.  and  32.3 32.3 Relevant timing restrictions must be applied to advertisements that, through their content, might harm or distress children of particular ages or that are otherwise unsuitable for them.  (Scheduling of Television and Radio Advertisements), but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action necessary.

BCAP Code

4.1     5.1     32.1     32.3    


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