bbc wrote:Final Destination 5 poster banned by ASA
The poster, used on buses and in the London Underground over the summer, showed a skull being shattered by steel rods driven through its mouth and eye sockets.
The watchdog said the image "was likely to cause fear and undue distress to children".
It ruled the ad must not appear in its original form again.
The ASA said 13 people complained about the poster, with three saying it had upset their children aged between one and three years old.
Warner Bros, which distributed the film, responded by saying it believed the poster "accurately reflected the content of the film in an appropriate manner without causing excessive fear or distress".
It said the posters were "surreal" containing an animated fantasy image and did not feature people, blood or display any real life violence.
It also argued that the posters' dark grey and black colours were "unlikely to engage the attention of young children".
In its adjudication, the ASA said: "We considered the image was likely to catch the attention of children, especially because it was shown on a poster on the Underground, where it was an untargeted medium.
"Because very young children might view this ad depicting violence, it was likely to cause fear and undue distress to children."
The film was released in cinemas in August and has since been released for home viewing.
This is absurd. Seriously, 13 people complain, only 3 of them claiming it scared their kids, and gets banned after being on display to millions of people for over 3 months.
Just how few people does it take to get something banned?
The banned poster. Scary huh.
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Well, if I had a mortal fear of rebar, I would likely be scared witless by this poster. But in all seriousness, banning it for any reason does strike me as being pretty silly.
I don't see how this is an absurd decision. That poster looks like it could scare children (for no societal gain). You have to remember that kids aren't generally desensitised to this kind of imagery: if they see a skull with steel rods poking into it, they will associate it with a real person being hurt, instead of just thinking 'oh that's a creepy picture'. As for taking it down after three months, that's probably a function of how the ASA works; I'm pretty sure they're only able to scrutinise adverts they receive complaints about (the alternative would be running all adverts past the ASA, which would be impractical and have free-speech issues).
Varrus: do you mean banning this particular poster for any reason is silly, or are you saying there should be no censorship of advertisement whatsoever?
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It is easy to become immune to this kind of imagery when you have been seeing it for years or you have a reasonable mindset. In both cases children dont generally meet this criteria thus exposing them to this kind of imagery could cause distress. Although I suspect the larger reactions come from people that have some experience with these types of films and felt distress themselves.
Getting told death is close with a violent image of nails through the skull could easily wierd people out. Especially if you have seen the Final Destination series and know the style of deaths they depict.
Remember, a child can be sent into screaming fits by nothing more than a man in a gorilla costume. The unfamiliar can be scary to a young child, I don't blame them for erring on the side of caution.
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For quite some time after I learned to read on my own I was hesitant to go to the S section of the encyclopedia because I hated pictures of skulls and skeletons, they creeped me out.
This might have went away the day I realized its fun to play <insert some random video game with skeletons in them>, but yeah, I can see why this poster might be scary as hell to a small kid.
The first time I ran headfirst into a skeleton in Daggerfall still made me jump though
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Kids used to be scared of a plastic doll in Doctor Who, so whatever.
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Well yeah, but being scared in the context of a television show like Dr. Who isn't the same as seeing disturbing imagery like this on public transport.
And also one of the ingredients to making a pony is cocaine. -Darth Fanboy.
Hey, I was agreeing that kids could potentially be scared of such imagery.
Never apologise for being a geek, because they won't apologise to you for being an arsehole. John Barrowman - 22 June 2014 Perth Supernova.
Countries I have been to - 14.
Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, Germany, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, USA.
Always on the lookout for more nice places to visit.
evilsoup wrote:
Varrus: do you mean banning this particular poster for any reason is silly, or are you saying there should be no censorship of advertisement whatsoever?
I'm saying it is silly to ban this particular poster. Sure it does scare kids, and probably offends some adults, but I don't think that's a good reason not to show this poster in public.
If anything, I think the biggest problem with this poster is that it's advertising ANOTHER Final Destination movie. But again, that's not a reason to ban it.
I don't have a problem removing some images in public, if they are meant to be horrifying. I hate health PSA posters that show diseased organs, for example. But I don't want people removing gargoyles from cathedrals, either, so...
It's a wavy line. If you are minding your own damn business in public, and someone happens to find your appearance uncomfortable, that's the someone's problem. If you're out in public with an image specifically tailored to horrify people, like you're dressed as an abortion or something, it might not be unreasonable for people to tell you to stop doing it.
Note: I'm semi-retired from the board, so if you need something, please be patient.
Hmph. I remeber some posters from Saw <number> which where amputated body parts.
like this or this or this.
Did anyone made a fuss about them out there in te US? Or are they less scary for children for reasons I ignore?
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CaptainChewbacca wrote:Remember, a child can be sent into screaming fits by nothing more than a man in a gorilla costume. The unfamiliar can be scary to a young child, I don't blame them for erring on the side of caution.
Hell, when Independence Day was coming out in theaters, I was freaked out by one of the big standees with a countdown saying something amounting to "the end is neigh." Was something like 9, so the concept that people, and advertising in particular, were intrinsically full of shit hadn't occurred to me yet.
But, I'm not going to call for stuff like this to be banned. Certianly, horror movies shouldn't be advertised on Cartoon Network, or during blocks of programming like Nick Jr. But, trying to hide everything objectionable from children all the time means nothing will ever be available.
It's not like the ad was on a SCHOOL Bus.
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CaptainChewbacca wrote:Remember, a child can be sent into screaming fits by nothing more than a man in a gorilla costume. The unfamiliar can be scary to a young child, I don't blame them for erring on the side of caution.
Hell, when Independence Day was coming out in theaters, I was freaked out by one of the big standees with a countdown saying something amounting to "the end is neigh." Was something like 9, so the concept that people, and advertising in particular, were intrinsically full of shit hadn't occurred to me yet.
The only character in that series I have any real sympathy for is Death. I mean, think about it. All these people that need to die every day, and you've got to figure out how to make it all happen after the list comes down from uplevels. You finally get it all sorted out, every last earthquake, heart attack, and bizarre accident involving all twelve Playmates of the Month and a vintage martini shaker, and then some schmuck gets a freakin' premonition and screws everything up. Then you've got the figure out a way to fit them onto the next list.
No wonder all the deaths are so bizarre. The guy's clearly just annoyed and hoping that if he keeps making examples the next guy to get a vision will just go "fuck it" and let things happen.
