ASA bans Molson’s Cantona ads…
The unwitting stars of two advertisements, footballer Eric Cantona and MP Neil Hamilton, have each had their complaints upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority.
Cantona has won his battle to ban a beer ad that recreates the moment that he kung-fu kicked a Crystal Palace fan.
The ASA has upheld complaints from his solicitors that the use of this incident to sell Molson beer “distressed and exploited” him.
The poster ad uses a Cantona lookalike wearing his Manchester United number seven shirt, and features three superimposed Can-Can girls above the strapline “A Molson moment in a sea of madness”.
The ASA upheld the complaints against the poster, produced by Foote Cone & Belding, despite arguments from Scottish Courage which markets Molson.
The brewer claimed that it was neither exploitative nor offensive, but was intended to be humourous and did not encourage violence.
Meanwhile, a complaint from Conservative MP Neil Hamilton against an ad for The Guardian newspaper, produced by Leagas Delaney, was also upheld because the newspaper had not obtained his permission to portray him in an “offensive or adverse” way.
The ad features a reproduction of the newspaper’s front page story which labelled Hamilton “A liar and a cheat”.
Other adjudications in this month’s ASA report include the first against an ad on the Internet. A complaint was upheld over a technical point in an ad produced by J Walter Thompson for a cable telephone service run by the Cable Communications Association.
The ASA cannot claim to regulate Net ads; it relies on advertisers to follow the codes drawn up by the industry body, the Committee of Adver- tising Practice (CAP), which were extended to cover the Net in 1995.
ASA prevets posters, page 12
