Barnardo's airs controversial ad in cinemas
Howard Lake | 2 August 2007 | News
Barnardo’s is expanding its use of the controversial ‘F**k off story’ ad by showing it in cinemas from this Friday (3 August).
The ad is part of the wider ‘Believe in children‘ campaign and features a young boy and a social worker. The boy tells the social worker that he told his parents, foster parents and social workers to f**k off, as well as Barnardo’s, but the ad makes the point that Barnardo’s didn’t desert him.
The ad will be shown throughout August in Carlton Screen Advertising’s network as a ‘bleeped-out’ version before films with a 15 certificate, and uncensored for those rated 18.
Advertisement
The ad has already been used online, although viewers were asked to opt-in before watching it because of the swearing. The charity will also use a poster campaign featuring separate stills from the ad.
The Advertising Standards Authority is currently investigating the campaign after receiving two complaints about a print ad.
Barnardo’s is no stranger to controversy after having a complaint upheld by the ASA in 2003 over an ad that showed a cockroach crawling out of a baby’s mouth and another depicting a baby with a syringe in its mouth.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.