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London (pte029/23.02.2005/12:30) - The British advertising watchdog has criticised a British TV channel for running an American Express advert that features surfing at the end of a news broadcast about the Asian tsunami. As the Media Guardian http://www.mediaguardian.co.uk reports, the advert on ITV shows the surfer Laird Hamilton talking about how his life "takes him to the edge", and features footage of large waves.
"The advertisement should not have been broadcast after its extended nightly news programme," said the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) http://www.asa.org.uk . "We felt viewers that saw the advertisement in or around the news were likely to have perceived a connection between the images of large waves in the advertisement and the disaster itself."
However, the ASA avoided criticism of other adverts depicting waves and surfing in the aftermath of the December 26 disaster. The regulator said that most viewers were unlikely to find the credit card advert - and an advert for the Seat Toledo car featuring a sumo wrestler surfing - distressing when they were screened during general programmes. The Seat advert showed a sumo wrestler surfing a large wave, which the car company said it felt was "absurd enough to remove it from the realities of the news event." However, the car company decided to withdraw the advert on January 7 after the reality of the Asian disaster become clear.
The American Express advert, which was shown on ITV, Channel 4, Five and Sky One, was withdrawn after the company said the networks decided it was inappropriate. According to ASA, it was a "adequate response" for the advertisers and networks to withdraw adverts from in and around news bulletins, even though the watchdog acknowledged that some viewers found them distasteful when shown in the aftermath of the tragedy. "Generally, the scheduling of the American Express advert was not appropriate," it said. The effects of the tsunami disaster led several other companies to drop campaigns they felt might be offensive to viewers.
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