Why The ITC Wasn’t Having Chicken Tonight
The Independent Television Commission (ITC) has released details of complaints about television advertising it dealt with for January 2001. Food and drink advertising seemed to cause the largest amount of controversy during the month, with an advert for Van der Bergh Foods’ Chicken Tonight Stir-In Paste prompting complaints from 16 sources, all with close links to the Hindu faith.
The cause of their objection was the treatment’s use of an image of a woman making inexperienced attempts at meditation, chanting “Om, dina Om” with sitar music playing in the background and then chastising a ready-to-cook chicken for not participating.
The viewers, some writing on behalf of large groups, said they had been insulted and offended by the advert which they felt ridiculed their religion and had used their sacred prayer to advertise a meat sauce when their faith forbade them to eat meat. The BACC had drawn attention to the need for care with the execution after initial consideration of the script. Van der Bergh, having undertaken research, were said to be “surprised and disappointed” by the offence caused, and had removed the advert from the air as soon as they had realised.
They said that the chanting was meant to be “generic” and that humour was meant to be derived by the woman’s amateurism at meditation, without specific reference to the Hindu faith. The ITC accepted that no offence was intended, but nevertheless upheld the complaints and welcomed assurances that no further transmissions would be made.
Causing a larger number of complaints – some 60 in all – was the Kronenbourg 1664 advert which shows a young woman appearing to cause horrible accidents such as thumbs being chopped off and old men being run over by trams, simply by the distraction her good looks cause. The action cuts away from each accident just as the gory bit is about to occur and in the end it is revealed that her glass of Kronenbourg, not her face, is causing the trouble.
Viewers felt that the ad was offensive and in poor taste. Not so, said the ITC, which “does not generally adjudicate on matters of taste unless it is evident that either widespread deep offence, or insult to particular groups, has been caused.” In this case, while noting the distaste of some viewers, it said that as no actual accidents were shown, the humour did not breach acceptable standards and did not uphold the complaints.
ITC: 020 7306 7743 www.itc.org.uk
Subscribers can access ten years of media news and analysis in the Archive