ASA clears anti-alcohol TV ads

The government TV campaign featuring young children talking about the effects of alcohol had attracted 27 complaints

A TV campaign featuring children as young as eight talking about being pressurised into sex and taking drugs has been cleared by the Advertising Standards Authority despite dozens of complaints that it was offensive and distressing.

The two TV ads form part of a Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) campaign about the wider impacts of drinking alcohol on decisions that young people go on to make.

One of the TV ads had been given a restriction meaning it could only be aired after 9pm.

The advertising watchdog received 27 complaints. Complainants variously argued that the ads were likely to cause serious or widespread offence, in particular because they showed children discussing adult topics, and that the ads were unsuitable to be shown when children might be watching.

In its submission to the ASA, DCSF said it was "acutely aware that there was a fine balance to be achieved between securing engagement and causing offence", but that it had achieved that balance.

Both ads were actually directed at parents, not children, DCSF added, and that the campaign had "worthwhile objectives and therefore felt it was important that they were seen by the widest audience possible ... the children in the ads delivered the message in a neutral and calm manner, rather than being sensationalist."

The ASA said that although it acknowledged that some viewers had found the ads "uncomfortable" to watch the content was unlikely to be seen as "disproportionate to the seriousness of the message".

It also noted that the timing restriction on one of the ads was sufficient to ensure that young children were not exposed to it.

"We noted the complaints we received were from adults, many of them parents," said the ASA. "We noted most of the complainants did not state that children had seen, or been distressed by, the ads. We also noted that the message of both ads was targeted at adults."

The ASA cleared the ads of breaching the advertising code.

"We considered very young children who saw the ad [with no time restriction] were unlikely to understand the references it included and, because the children delivered the messages in a calm manner and the references they made were largely indirect," said the ASA.

