ASA upholds complaints about C4 ad

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld complaints about an ad for the Channel 4 documentary Cutting Edge, after the Samaritans claimed the poster could encourage suicides.

The ruling comes less than a week after the Samaritans condemned a press campaign for trade union Unison, featuring a wrist that has been slashed because of government cutbacks, for potentially inspiring “copy cat behaviour”.

The C4 poster showed the lower legs of a person standing on the edge of the roof of a high rise building, with feet half off the edge and carrying the strapline “Go on Jump”.

The poster was promoting a programme entitled “Seconds to Impact”, part of the C4 documentary series Cutting Edge, about base jumping – an extreme sport that involves parachuting off buildings.

Channel 4 said the poster was designed to be provocative and visually arresting in order to convey the danger and adrenaline-inducing nature of the sport.

But the ASA agreed with the Samaritans that the prominence of the strapline, together with the image of a person standing on the edge of a high rise building could have encouraged copy-cat behaviour and was “irresponsible”.

By the time the ASA made its ruling, the campaign had already finished. C4 says it will not use the posters again.