ITV in trouble over ad for The Enfield Haunting which 'distressed' children
ITV Broadcasting is in hot water with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after an ad for Sky Living drama The Enfield Haunting scheduled during Britain's Got Talent led to young children becoming 'distressed'.
The advert for the drama, which is based on the claims of poltergeist activity at a council house in Enfield in the 1970s, showed a person in bed on CCTV which then went fuzzy and light bulbs exploding in a living room. Two girls were then shown in bed together holding bedcovers close to their faces and one said, “It’s inside the room”.
The ad spurred 37 viewers to complain, some of whose children were distressed by the ad. The complainants objected that the ad had been inappropriately scheduled during a family programme when younger children were likely to see it.
The ad was cleared by Clearcast with an ex-kids restriction, which meant it should not be shown in or around programmes made for, specifically targeted, or likely to be of particular appeal to children.
ITV Broadcasting said it had looked at Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB) data for the programme which showed that it was not of particular appeal to children, as a proportion of the viewing audience. It added that it did not believe the ad was particularly frightening.
Clearcast said they it given the ad an ex-kids restriction on the basis that the ad featured eerie music and included mention of death and poltergeists, but that the content was not violent or very frightening.
However, the ASA said the ad could be distressing to younger children, given that 745,000 viewers tuning were aged between four and nine years. The watchdog also noted that the ad was shown at a time which was likely to be close to the bedtime of the younger children watching, and that a number of the complainants had referred to their children having difficulty sleeping because they were frightened.
The ASA said the ad had been inappropriately scheduled and told ITV Broadcasting to more sensitively scheduled ads in the future.