ASA Refuses To Blast Graphic Gun Amnesty Ad

The ASA has dismissed a raft of complaints against a Government-backed gun amnesty campaign, which featured the graphic image of a child with a gunshot wound to the forehead.

Thirteen complainants objected that the ‘Get Guns Off The Streets’ campaign, which appeared in a range of national newspapers, was offensive and unduly distressing, especially to those who had been victims of gun crime.

The Central Office Of Information argued that its use of stark imagery was necessary to make the gun amnesty campaign effective and pointed out that the image had been carefully cropped to make it less distasteful.

The Government’s communications agency also provided evidence to support its claim that families of gun crime victims would back a hard hitting campaign that could prevent other from experiencing similar trauma.

None of the papers that featured the ad received any complaints and The Evening Standard offered its support for the campaign, which it said showed that real gunshot wounds differ from the sanitised version often seen on television.

The ASA noted that the gunshot wound was fake and considered that the target audience was likely to understand the nature of the campaign. It acknowledged that the complainants had been distressed by the ad, but concluded that it was unlikely to cause serious offence.

The Authority did, however, rule that the ad was unsuitable to be seen by children because of the seriousness of the message it conveyed.

Last week the ASA ordered Channel 4 to withdraw a series of ads for the second series of Six Feet Under, after ruling they were likely to cause serious offence (see ASA Forces Channel 4 To Ditch Six Feet Under Ads).

ASA: 020 7580 5555 www.asa.org.uk

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