ITV’s Wrist Slapped Over Tsunami Ad Placement

The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint against ITV after it screened a commercial for American Express featuring a surfer riding a large wave following an ITV News report on the Asian tsunami.

The complaint was made to the ASA against ITV, Channel Four, Channel Five and Sky One, with six viewers complaining that it was insensitive to show the advert following the disaster, while three viewers said they saw the advertisement on ITV on 26 December and on Channel Four on 29 December after nightly news bulletins containing upsetting footage from the disaster. Two of those viewers also complained that the advert was broadcast on Channel Four adjacent to another advertisement that contained images of large waves.

In its defence ITV pointed out that the day the advert was shows was the day the disaster occurred and said it had acted as quickly as possible and followed established procedures to identify potentially unsuitable advertisements as soon as the scale of the disaster became clear.

The broadcaster went on to state that it was never the intention to schedule the advertisement insensitively and it was withdrawn from schedules the day after it was seen by the complaining viewer.

Channel Four acknowledged that the advertisement was shown adjacent to another featuring a large wave on 29 December, but stated that the broadcast had occurred during a commercial break in a programme called The Real King Herod, and not immediately after a news bulletin. The broadcaster did agree that the advertisement was inappropriate, however, and ran an alternative version from 1 January.

Meanwhile, Five stated that it did not broadcast the advertisement on 28 December as the viewer had thought, explaining that it was contacted by the advertising agency responsible for American Express on 29 December and the advertisement was withdrawn. Sky said that no news programmes ran on Sky One and it did not believe there were any inappropriate juxtapositions between the advertisement and surrounding programmes it broadcast.

In delivering its ruling the ASA stated that viewers who saw the advertisement in or around the news were “likely to have percieved a connection between the images of large waves in the advertisement and the disaster itself”. While the regulator noted ITV’s checks to screen inappropriate adverts in light of tragic news events, it believed that the advertisement should not have been broadcast after its extended nightly news programme.

The watchdog also stated that, unless the commercial was broadcast directly after or during news programmes featuring images of the tsunami, viewers were “unlikely to find the advertisement distressing”. The ASA therefore upheld the complaint about the scheduling of the advertisement after the ITV news, but concluded that, generally, the scheduling of the advertising was not inappropriate.

ASA: 020 7580 5555 www.asa.org.uk ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com

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