Wanna - don't!

ASA research shows that the public’s biggest concern about advertising is the ads that children may see.  In order to protect children from inappropriate or potentially harmful ads, the rules surrounding advertising to children are particularly strict. It was these rules that were brought to bear when the ASA responded to nearly 70 complaints about a TV ad for Internet provider Wanadoo.

The comercial was set in a scrapyard and featured a group of teenagers who were running, dancing, laughing, shouting and splashing about in muddy puddles. Set to a rock music soundtrack, the teenagers were shown in and around wrecked and smashed cars before a final shot, seen through the smashed windscreen of a car, showed a girl and a boy French kissing on the back seat.

Some viewers objected that the kiss was too explicit, especially when children could be watching, whilst others believed the ad showed children in a dangerous environment, condoning behaviour that could lead to harm. As a result of these complaints, the ASA decided to launch a formal investigation.

During the investigation, the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC), which pre-vets television ads before they go on air, explained that it had asked for a number of edits to be made. Scenes involving actors climbing on cars had been removed and the scrapyard made to look more like a backdrop rather than the focal location point. Even after these changes had been made, the BACC still placed an ex-kids restriction on the ad which meant it would be kept away from programmes specifically made for children.

In response to the complaints about the explicit nature of the kiss Wanadoo stated it was the kind of kiss widely accepted by young adults and was neither coarse or unduly sexual. They pointed out that similar kissing scenes appeared in TV programmes aimed at that age group. With the restriction in place they believed it would not be seen by children aged 4-9 but would reach the 16-34 year olds they wanted to target.

The ASA did not agree that such explicit kisses were seen before the 9pm watershed. Furthermore, while the ex-kids scheduling restriction would keep the ad away from children’s programmes, it did not prevent the ad from being shown at any other time of the day when young viewers might be watching. Ultimately, the ASA judged that the kiss was much too graphic for the timing restriction that was in place.

In response to the complaints that the ad encouraged and condoned behaviour that could lead children to harm, the advertisers reiterated that the ad wasn’t targeted at children. They argued that the scrapyard was not portrayed as a fun place and that it was a backdrop for the action, not part of the action. Nor did they believe that the teenagers (all the actors were over 18 in age and appearance) were seen playing with or on the cars. Their interpretation was that the ad merely showed youngsters splashing through mud and puddles which was not dangerous or controversial behaviour.

Nevertheless, the ASA believed it was irresponsible to show a car scrapyard as an adventurous place to hang out with friends. The ad certainly had an appeal to children, not least because younger, more impressionable viewers could see the teenagers’ actions as cool and actions that could be copied. The characters in the ad did interact with the vehicles: one young woman lay on the bonnet of the car, whilst the kissing couple had clearly climbed into the back of the wrecked car with smashed windows. Several shots of the scrapyard showed interaction in an environment that was potentially seriously hazardous to health. Overall, the ad gave no sense of the possible dangers of  playing in a scrapyard.

The ASA upheld the complaints and found the ad in breach of the TV advertising Code. It found that the ex-kids timing restriction was inadequate in keeping the material away from children and gave the impression that a car scrapyard was fun place to play. The ASA concluded that because of the likely appeal to children the ad represented a serious and realistic risk of harm and was therefore unsuitable to be shown at any time.