An advert for 247Blinds has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for ‘making light of disability’ with an advert which alluded to blindness.

The advert contained the phrase: “Made-to-measure quality blinds… without having your eyes out! Blind envy starts here.”

The regulator was alerted to the advert for the business 247Blinds, which featured the phrase alongside an image of a person with plaint splatters and stars over their eyes, after a severely sight-impaired complainant argued that the advert could cause serious offence.

The advert had been viewed by 182,000 users, resulting in 1.7 million impressions before the campaign finished at the end of July.

In its defense, 247 Home Furnishings argued that the term “having your eyes out” was regularly used in relation to disbelief in order to show unfavourable surprise.

It also argued that the phrase “quality blinds” would primarily be seen as humorous, rather than offensive.

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The ASA ruled that because it was shown alongside the phrase “without having your eyes out!”, when seen alongside the image it could be understand as a reference to blindness that makes light of the disability in an offensive way.

It banned the advert from appearing again in its current form, and urged 247HomeFurnishings to ensure that their future adverts did not cause serious or widespread offence, particularly on the grounds of disability.

Speaking to Indy100, the RNIB’s chief social officer Vivienne Francis described the ad as “extremely disappointing” and called it a “tasteless representation of sight loss”. 

The ASA also recently banned an advert fronted by reality TV star Gemma Collins for harmfully and misleadingly promoting a headset as having the potential to treat depression.