PRIVATE HOSPITALS CLEARED TO ADVERTISE ABORTIONS ON U.K. TV

Britain’s Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice has drawn up recommendations, which if implemented would allow private hospitals in the U.K. to advertise abortion services. Previously only non-profit hospitals were permitted to do so. The only one that did, a clinic operated by the charity Marie Stopes International, drew 4,500 complaints last year to the Advertising […]

U.K. AD AUTHORITY BANS COMMERCIALS FOR THE MECHANIC

Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority has ordered that ads for the R-rated (in the U.S.) movie The Mechanic, starring Jason Statham and Ben Foster, be pulled from all channels because of a “stream of violent imagery” that they display. Britain’s Press Association described the objectionable scenes this way: “A man being speared through the calf, a […]

SEX NOT A BIG FACTOR IN U.K. AD COMPLAINTS

“No Sex Please, We’re British,” may have been the title of a classic comedy that had a long run in the 1970s in London’s West End, taking on the British reputation for prudery, but when it comes to television advertising, it’s the Americans who are more likely to raise the “no sex” cry. While sexy […]