Bad Taste Humour In Ads Passed By ITC
Offbeat humour in TV advertising prompted complaints from viewers to the ITC during February, but the regulators treated the campaigns in question with good humour. 81 complaints were received about the three treatments making up the latest Ikea campaign. These feature a Mafia style trio with Swedish accents appearing in peoples homes to interrogate them about why they hadn’t visit the store, with the implication that unpleasant things would happen to them if they didn’t.
The complaints included suggestions that the advertising was in poor taste, could frighten vulnerable viewers, was intimidating, had reminded viewers of personal experiences or could frighten young children, despite the fact that the ads each had an ex-kids restriction.
The ITC pointed out that it only intervened in issues of taste and offence where a commercial was likely to cause serious distress, disgust or harm to viewers. It considered the “dry humour” of these ads unlikely to have this effect and did not uphold the complaints.
A further 51 viewers complained about an advert for Batchelors’ East West Noodle Company Saucy Noodles which showed a young couple being put off their TV viewing by a grandmother’s noisy consumption of the noodles. When they move to a different room to continue watching, the old lady changes the channel to what appears to be a sex scene, complete with corny music and heavy breathing.
Complainants thought that the advert should have been restricted to post-watershed slots to prevent young children from seeing it. The ITC noted that it was already excluded from slots in and around children’s programming and felt that concerns about the material “arose mainly from an adult understanding” and would mean very little to young children. The complaints were not upheld.
Finally, 26 viewers objected to a cartoon-style advert for Pot Noodles, where a boy gets his tongue stuck to a frozen post in a school playground. When his teacher goes to boil the kettle instead of using it to rescue him, she makes a Pot Noodle for herself. Complaints were raised by those who felt the advert encouraged child neglect, could encourage harmful emulation and portrayed the teaching profession in a bad light.
The ITC judged that since the voice-over on the advert said “with Pot Noodle its all me, me, me”, it was clear that the actions of the adult were caused by an irrational desire to eat the Pot Noodle before rescuing the boy. It also felt that “licking a frozen post was not an act likely to be emulated by young viewers” and that the cartoon style of the ad placed it in the realms of fantasy. “Most viewers would not have taken the actions of the ‘teacher’ to be typical or representative of the teaching profession.” it concluded, and did not uphold the complaints.
ITC: 020 7306 7743 www.itc.org.uk
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