Sun TV ad banned for marketing to children
A television advert that encouraged children to purchase the Sun newspaper in return for football trading cards has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority.
The ASA pulled the plug on the ad after agreeing with viewer complaints that the clip, which featured footballer turned pundit Ian Wright alongside several child actors, had “directly exhorted” children to buy the paper or encourage others to do so for them.
Ostensibly the campaign had been formulated to promote The Sun’s trading card promotion, Topps Match Attax, and saw one child asked if any of the players featured were “worth a week’s pocket money”.
Explaining their decision the ASA said “Because we considered some young viewers would understand the reference to pocket money as an encouragement to purchase, we considered the ad directly exhorted children to buy the Sun to obtain the promotional football cards."