McDonald’s produced a TV ad that includes a boy and his mother speaking about his dead father. From the dialog, the boy became visibly upset as he found few similarities between him and the father that his mother described. Ultimately, he found comfort when she told him that both he and his father loved McDonald’s Filet O Fish burger. The ad attracted complaint that it was trivialising grief, was more likely to cause distress to those that have experienced a close family death and was distasteful to compare an emotive theme to a fast food promotion. The fast food chain issued an apology and pulled the ads.
This was a TV ad about spending Christmas in front of the TV. The Currys PC World ad showed a set of fogeys telling their children that they might like to have fun Christmas “historically” this year by sitting by the fire, making a song carols and having long conversations. The mother then laughed at the visibly upset little ones and defined it was a joke. She led the family to a higher room to turn them a new Oleg TV that her corporation, Currys PC World, had allowed her to bring home and test. Complainants believed the ad was offensive because it promoted materialism and equated Christmas with staring at TV as a substitute of Christianity.
A TV ad for Macmillan Cancer Support included fast-paced scenes of a father talking to his daughter, receiving chemotherapy, vomiting in a sink, sitting slumped in a bath, and crying in a car before being comforted by a nurse. People complained that the imagery was overly graphic and distressing to viewers. Though we understood probably the most scenes, particularly the only during which the guy vomited, were distressing to a few audience, we believed they served as an example the reality of living with cancer. The storyline of the ad and the carrier that Macmillan Cancer Support was advertising offered context. We believed it addressed the critical nature of the illness as it should be.
Furthermore, scheduling regulations meant it wouldn’t be shown around toddlers’s programmes. The Advertising Standards Authority Ltd. buying and selling as ASA, registered in England and Wales, Registered Number 0733214 The Advertising Standards Authority Broadcast Ltd. buying and selling as ASAB, registered in England and Wales, Registered Number 5130991 The Committee of Advertising Practice Ltd. CAP, registered in England and Wales, Registered Number 8310744 The Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice Ltd.
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