One poster showed actor Paul
Giamatti pointing a gun while holding a mobile phone to his ear.
Another showed Clive Owen leaping in the air and aiming two guns
towards the viewer, though not pointing directly at the viewer. A
third poster showed Owen with a gun by his side.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received complaints
that the ads were irresponsible. Others said they were offensive
and insensitive towards families affected by gun crime, in
particular the family of Rhys Jones, the 11-year-old who was
recently shot dead in Liverpool. Three people said the posters
might distress young children.
Entertainment Film Distributors defended the posters. It denied
that they glamorised gun violence. The company said the weapons in
the image of Clive Owen holding two guns had been specifically
designed to angle the guns away from the viewer. It also said the
poster had been approved by the Advertising Viewing Committee of
the Film Distribution Association, the body that approves
promotional material for all 18 certificate films.
The ASA acknowledged
that the text on the posters – including "Just another family man
making a living" and "I'm a British nanny and I'm dangerous" – gave
an ironic effect.
But it added: "We were nevertheless mindful of growing leve ls
of public concern about the use and threatened use of guns. We
concluded that, when taken together, the image and text in [the
poster showing Owen with a gun by his side] would be seen by most
people merely to reflect the content of the film and was unlikely
to be seen to glamorise or glorify real gun crime. However, we
considered that the prominence of the gun in [the poster showing
Giamatti holding a gun and a phone] and the action shot and the
actor's expression in [the poster showing Owen aiming two handguns]
suggested a direct aggression that could be seen to glamorise the
use of guns and violence."
The two offending ads "could be seen to condone violence by
glorifying or glamorising the use of guns," said the ASA. It
ordered that they should not be shown again.
The ASA rejected the
complaints about insensitivity towards families affected by gun
crime and the risk of distress to children.
The ASA has received complaints this year about 523 ads that
depicted or alluded to violence. That is more than twice as many as
the number of ads that were the subject of similar complaints last
year. A spokesperson told OUT-LAW that the ASA is concerned by this
increase and is hosting a
seminar in Nottingham today to debate where the line should be
drawn in future.
