Children’s charity Barnardo’s has been at the centre of an investigation by the Advertising Standards Authority over its advert showing child abuse and drug taking. The advert, which shows a young girl being hit by a man and later on taking drugs has had nearly 500 complaints since it was first aired.
But in a ruling by the ASA, the advert will still be shown and said that the adverts use of shocking images was justified. In a statement by the ASA they said, “The scene involving violence, although shocking to watch, showed the violence as unacceptable behaviour and did not encourage or condone it.”
The Statement went on to say, “We concluded that the aim of the ads justified the use of such strong imagery,”
The ASA added that the advert was only shown after 2100 hours and away from programs that were popular with children.
In a separate statement, a Barnardo’s spokesperson said: “We hoped that viewers of the advertisement would be able to look beyond the challenging story and realise that this is a very real issue and that the shocking fact is that for some children the story will keep repeating itself until someone stops it.”
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