Channel 4 receives ASA ban for Amazon Prime 'Fear the Walking Dead' ad
Channel 4 has been hit by a ban from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for scheduling a spot promoting Amazon Prime's access to AMC horror series The Fear of the Walking Dead during a children's film.
Channel 4 has received a ban from the ASA for promoting Amazon's Fear of the Walking Dead coverage / Fear of the Walking dead channel 4 amazon
One member of the public complained about the spot, which included a voice-over taken from the AMC drama and was shown to viewers during the film Rango at 5.35pm and 6.40pm. The individual said that their child was distressed by the ad and objected that it had been inappropriately scheduled during a children’s film.
The ad showed scenes taken from the drama series, which included posters of a missing woman, a shadowed figure, an unwell man falling down, people running in distress, police and ambulance sirens, people in bio-hazard suits and a frightened woman in a plantation field holding onto a fence. During these scenes, one of the female characters from the Walking Dead spin-off stated, 'What the hell is happening?'
Channel 4 argued that it recognised Rango as a film that would appeal to children and as such restricted the advertising shown in and around it to be suitable for children. It said it had been assured by Clearcast that the ad in question didn't warrant such a restriction because there was "no graphic content."
Clearcast recommended 'presentation code 32', for the ad, telling broadcasters that they might want to review its acceptability for transmission in programmes appealing to children under nine years of age. Channel 4 stated that its internal system should have applied an appropriate flag for the ad, which would have automatically identified the presentation code requiring a member of staff to manually apply the appropriate restriction.
It apologised for any distress this error may have caused and stated that it took its responsibilities as a broadcaster "very seriously" and was taking steps to improve how the application of timing restrictions were managed.
The watchdog, however, ruled that the look and sound of the ad "created a build-up of suspense that could be distressing to younger children, but that would not be unsuitable for older children to see," and therefore should have been sensitively scheduled.
"We noted that the ad was shown during an animated film that would have strong appeal to young children. Furthermore, it was scheduled on a Sunday afternoon, which we considered was likely to be seen as family viewing time.
"Viewers would have expected ads to be scheduled with the family audience in mind and were unlikely to expect to see ads that would be frightening to younger children," the regulator concluded.
The ASA told Channel 4 to ensure that ads which were suitable for older children, but could distress younger children, were "sensitively" scheduled in future.