A Father’s Day advert that featured a picture of the serial killer Fred West has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for causing ‘serious offence and distress’.
Sent in June, the email for a live dissection event called The Vivit Experience, produced by ITAE Productions, was titled ‘She’s Under The Patio’ and included a picture of the killer.
The ad stated: “This week we take a look at the Fathers famous for all the wrong reasons… Fred West became known in the 1990s when it was revealed him and his wife, Rosemary, were involved in 12 murders of young women in Gloucester.”
“One of their victims was their own daughter… when she was missing they would often joke of her being ‘buried under the patio’. Take 10% off this Fathers Day.”
The promotion also included an image of a body cut open through the stomach, displaying its internal organs.
A total of three email recipients complained to the ASA claiming that the ad was likely to cause “serious or widespread offence.”
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ITAE Productions responded by branding the ad as inoffensive,adding that West was “notorious for murder, but that he was also a father, and that this was relevant to his crimes”.
The company believed the ad was socially acceptable as it shared history relevant to occasions when there was a direct link between West’s crimes and Father’s Day.
ITAE also claimed that consumers would be familiar with the quote “she’s under the patio” as West used it as a “family joke”.
Despite the company’s defence, the advertising watchdog ultimately upheld the complaints noting that marketers “must not use a shocking claim or image merely to attract attention”.
“We considered that conflating Fred West with the celebration of Father’s Day was intended to create shock value and contributed to the ad’s offensive nature,” the ASA added.
“The subject line of the ad, ‘she’s under the patio,’ also refers to the murder of Heather West and the subsequent concealment of her body. We considered that using the murder of a young woman, in order to shock readers into clicking on the ad, was gratuitous and likely to cause serious offence.”
“The treatment of Ms West in the ad was also dehumanising, especially within the context of an ad which used her murder as a tool to promote a discount code.
“Furthermore, we considered the tone of the ad was flippant, and that this approach trivialised the circumstances surrounding the murder of the victims.”
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