09.11.2009
The BBC has been criticised by Ofcom, for an episode of Top Gear broadcast on August 2nd. The episode featured a spoof remake of an advertisement for a Volkswagen Scirocco which showed a man committing suicide with a gunshot to the head, followed by blood splattering out after the impact of the bullet.
The spoof advert was shown before the 9pm watershed and resulted in 50 viewers complaining to the broadcast and communications regulator, stating that it was too graphic and unsuitable for the time it was broadcast.
Ofcom has ruled that the episode broke broadcasting rules since there was no information before the spoof advertisement which would have prepared viewers for its potentially disturbing nature and alerted adult viewers to the fact that it may be unsuitable for younger viewers.
Top Gear will return to BBC Two this Sunday, but the start time has been put back to 9pm to avoid clashing with ITV’s X Factor show. Conveniently this now places it after the watershed, so expect more antics despite the Ofcom ruling.
Incidentally, viewers also complained about the use of the word ‘pikey’ in another Top Gear episode but this was found not have breached broadcasting rules…
About Steve Davies
Steve is a media, venture, and technology advisor and a former Partner at KPMG Consulting, PriceWaterhouse Coopers and Managing Partner at EIM - his clients range from global web and media companies to small start-ups. He formed Drivers Republic (DR) in 2007, the UK's first digital automotive magazine, with a team of EVO and Autocar writers before creating SkiddMark, and also writes as a guest contributor on Unruly Media’s Meme Machine blog and for Econsultancy’s digital marketing blog.
Subscribe to Steve's podcasts.Tell us what you think..
When you post a comment, it will also appear in your News Feed on Facebook (if you so choose), enabling you to take the conversation to where your friends already are. Thereafter you can continue discussing on Facebook and the conversations between SkiddMark and Facebook will be auto-magically synched, regardless of where the comment was made.
3 Comments
Mike GT
November 9, 2009I was surprised, and thought perhaps they did go a bit too far when I first saw it. It may have been somewhat of a shock at first, but news and talk shows showing home video of people jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge (i.e. real suicide) is truly disturbing. Watching the commercial again it seems more a comical depiction meant to be taken lightly.
However, the anger over that word seems silly even though I have never heard of it and don’t know what it means. Didn’t Top Gear let slip the “s” word once?
Mike GT
November 9, 2009I was surprised, and thought perhaps they did go a bit too far when I first saw it. It may have been somewhat of a shock at first, but news and talk shows showing home video of people jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge (i.e. real suicide) is truly disturbing. Watching the commercial again it seems more a comical depiction meant to be taken lightly.
However, the anger over that word seems silly even though I have never heard of it and don’t know what it means. Didn’t Top Gear let slip the “s” word once?
Advertising So Bad It’s Good | Will Video for Food
April 10, 2010[...] series of ads is so wonderfully offensive (and resulted in complaints according to this source) that it seems like a brilliant premeditated viral maneuver. Almost too perfect, right? Even [...]