Ad Schedules Distress Viewers

The ITC received seventeen complaints regarding the scheduling of adverts in the wake of the Dunblane shootings on 13 March, the television watchdog has revealed in its April complaints report. Of these, thirteen were upheld.

The ad which provoked most protest (nine complaints) was for Persil which had a line of dialogue in which a couple refer to the fact that their son had a toy gun on his bed. This ad immediately followed a GMTV report on the Dunblane tragedy. These complaints were upheld. There were also four complaints regarding an ad for Lee jeans which showed a man firing a shotgun at his daughter’s boyfriend: the ITC believed the ad should have been suspended as it was shown only two days after the incident. These complaints were also upheld.

There were also complaints regarding a Jersey Tourist Board ad which stated that Jersey “gets more sunshine than anywhere in Britain” and a Tango ad which featured a manager reprimanding an employee with an orange slipper. The complaint regarding the Jersey ad was upheld since the complainant proved that Eastbourne was in fact sunnier, whilst the Tango complaints were not upheld: the ITC believed that the ad did not go beyond acceptable limits and most people would not be offended.

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