Violent Imagery In Ads Draws Complaints

Channel 4 has been the subject of criticism according to the Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA) latest monthly report. An insert placed in the Times, the Sunday Times and the Independent for C4’s Film Four service, which showed pictures from films due to be shown on the channel, drew a number of complaints that they condoned violence.

The ASA upheld the complaints and asked that the advertisement not be repeated. The pictures featured on the insert included images of guns pointed at a person’s head, a man pointing a gun at the reader, and a gunfight where one man is lying in a pool of blood on the floor.

Another gruesome advert to provoke complaints was by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and was part of the campaign to ban fox-hunting. One of the ads in question had the strapline ‘Rest In Peace’ against a photograph of a pack of hounds ripping a fox apart.

Members of the Cattistock Hunt, the Countryside Alliance and several members of the public objected to some of the claims outlined by the national press ads – that is, the impression that foxes were simply ripped apart before death. Only one complaint out of eight was upheld.

Channel 5 was also courting controversy with a national press football match advert which played on recent speculation about the sexuality of Peter Mandelson. Complaints that the advert was generally offensive to Peter Mandelson however, were not upheld by the ASA, as it considered that the adverts were unlikely to offend.

Advertising Standards Authority: 0171 580 5555