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A Media Guardian report indicates that the watchdog launched
an investigation into press ads for Six Feet Under, which
revolves around a family of Los Angeles undertakers. ASA has received
over 100 complaints. In India, the show airs on Zee English.
Channel 4's promotional campaign, drew its inspiration from the
mock television ads for funeral service products such as embalming
fluid and wound filler that appeared in the pilot episode of the
show.
The ad campaign is shot in the same style as these spoof ads from
the show, which are a pastiche of conventional campaigns for upmarket
beauty and fashion brands. One of the ads features a naked head
and shoulders shot of a male model, made up to look like a corpse,
with an image of a bottle of spoof brand "In Eternum embalming fluid"
beside him.
Defending the strategy, Channel 4 marketing manager, Katie Hayes
had been quoted in earlier reports saying: "Six Feet Under
embodies the attitudes and values of Channel 4 - innovative, provocative
and intelligent. By marketing the Fisher's funeral business instead
of directly marketing the show, we aim to create intrigue and anticipation.
Although the campaign focuses on death, the parallels that we draw
with the fashion and beauty industry give it a sardonic but tasteful
feel."
Several media owners are understood to have shown their opposition
to the ad campaign by offering Channel 4 such disadvantageous advertising
space that the broadcaster decided not to book the ads. The print
ads featured in Time Out, the Independent on Sunday Review,
the Observer magazine and the Times magazine.
The ASA complainants said that the campaign could be offensive,
particularly to people who had recently lost a loved one. Channel
4 has already been forced to take down a poster campaign for the
series after it was deluged with complaints.
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