Complaints against Barnardo's ad not upheld
Howard Lake | 21 August 2007 | News
Complaints to The Times and The Telegraph that an advertisement for Barnardo’s was offensive have been dismissed by the Advertising Standards Authority.
The two newspapers each received one complaint over an ad which showed an image of a young boy’s face. The Times ad said: He told his parents to f**k off. He told his foster parents to f**k off. He told fourteeen social workers to f**k off. He told us to f**k off, but we didn’t. And we still haven’t. The Telegraph ran the same ad, but with an asterisk in place of the ‘k’.
Barnardo’s said it had chosen to imply a swear word in the ad because it wanted to reflect the reality and attitudes of young people with whom it worked. The organisation said the ad highlighted that it was not deflected by bad language and would persevere and look beyond aggressive behaviour to see the potential in every child.
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Both papers said they were aware of the sensitive nature of the ad but considered that it was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence among their readers.
The ASA noted that the advertisement had appeared in newspapers with a predominantly adult readership and that both papers had received only one complaint direct.
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.