Five Brought To Book Over Serial Killer Mailshot
A direct mail campaign by Five, designed to promote the latest series of crime drama CSI with a fake Government dossier on a serial killer, has been rapped by the Advertising Standards Agency after 200 recipients complained that the mailout was offensive and distressing.
The promotional “dossier”, containing photographs of fictional murder victims, a coroner’s report, a fabric sample stained with fake blood and a wanted poster for a character dubbed “The Carbon Copy Killer”.
Five’s mailout was made more disturbing for recipients by its personalisation, with a fake psychologists report outlining the Carbon Copy Killer’s obsession with victims of the same name, referencing newspaper cuttings detailing the murders of three people with the same name as the recipient.
The broadcaster defended its actions, stating that the mailout was the second element of a two-tiered campaign, with the first element, a personalised viral e-mail of the same nature, receiving no negative feedback. Five went on to explain that the direct mail campaign was intended to reflect the “dark and gritty tone” of CSI, making use of personalisation involve the recipient more closely with the crime detection and forensic elements of the programme.
The mailout was sent to around 30,000 people which Five states were carefully selected due to their specifically expressed interest in crime and law enforcement programmes. The broadcaster also stated that it believed the target audience was “sufficiently well defined to be likely to be interested in programmes like CSI:NY.”
However, the ASA ruled that the direct mailing had led to “serious offence and distress” amongst its recipients, many of which had not realised that the contents was bogus, or that it was promoting a television programme.
The watchdog concluded that the mailing had caused “serious offence and distress to recipients” and instructed Five not to repeat its approach to marketing the series. The Authority was also concerned that many of the complainants had not requested the type of information in the mailout, and that recipients were minors. Overall, the ASA concluded that the disturbing nature of the programme, and the contents of the mailing, would “seriously offend those who had not specifically requested information about the CSI series, or who were not aware of the television series.”
CSI has become one of Five’s most successful shows, drawing an average audience of over 3 million adults. Five has expanded its coverage of the series, screening CSI, CSI:Miami and CSI:NY, which was the focus of its controversial direct mailing material.
ASA: 020 7580 5555 www.asa.org.uk Five: 020 7550 5555 www.five.tv
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