ITC Rejects Bad Taste Complaints

The recent ad campaign for the TV Times has come under fire in the latest report from the Independent Television Commission, in which it received over 50 complaints. The ad featured celebrity Samantha Janus being followed around the streets by a camera and complainants felt that in the light of the Jill Dando murder, the commercial was in poor taste.

Complainants felt that the way in which the ad was filmed suggested that Janus was being stalked and the police pursued a theory involving a stalker when they were investigating Jill Dando’s murder. However, although the ITC acknowledged the connection, it decided that the tone of the ad was not threatening or voyeuristic, and therefore unlikely to condone stalking, so the watchdog did not uphold the complaint.

The ITC also refused to uphold 43 complaints against Pretty Polly for their bra advertisements, which showed a sequence of women showing off their bras. The cameras homed in on breasts and bras, and complainants felt that the ads were sexist, or made women look cheap and mindless. The ad was restricted to after the watershed and the ITC ruled that the ad did not go beyond what viewers generally find acceptable.

The regulator did uphold a complaint against the Sunday Times for featuring a red-faced devil character from the latest Star Wars movie on the front of its magazine. A viewer complained that an ad for the magazine frightened her very young children, and the ITC agreed that the scheduling was inappropriate.

Independent Television Commission: 0171 255 3000