ASA's 2015 Most Complained Campaigns #6

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Coming in at sixth place in the Advertising Standards Agency's "Top 10 most complained about adverts of 2015" is the memorable advert for the British Heart Foundation. This advert received 219 complaints after being shown on television, on demand and in cinema adverts. 

The advert consists of a young boy sitting in a classroom when he sees his dad standing infront of him. The boy is confused to why his dad is there and his dad says "I wont be around anymore", " i'm sorry" and "look after your mum". the dad then disappears and the head teacher appears at the door with news for the boy. It then turns out that the boys dad had died of a heart attach and was not actually in front of him and that was his head teacher arriving to tell the boy the news. 

Complaints arose after people saw the advert to be distressing for both adults and children to see as it is such a strong powerful and sad story. it is not sugar coated in any way and the advert shows the brutal truth to get the message across that "heart disease is heartless" and it can strike without warning. 

The advertising standards authority recognised that some people might find the ad upsetting but judged it was unlikely to cause widespread distress. Although this was recognised, the Advertising Standards Authority decided to result this advert as Not Upheld. However, it was noted that the advert had been scheduled to not appear around children's programming as it was not appropriate and may be too distressing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQtz2wYBFsE

click the link above to watch the advert for the British Heart Foundation and see what you think of it. Do you find this advert more disturbing than powerful? Do you see the message that the advert is trying to put across?