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An OOH campaign that included US dollars and euro notes burning has been banned by the ASA, which claimed that the posters could cause offense to tourists visiting from abroad
The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned an out-of-home (OOH) campaign from being publicly shown, labelling it as causing “serious offense”.
The OOH campaign from online investment platform, Wahed Invest, contained six posters featuring US dollar and euro banknotes on fire.
The campaign ran on various Transport for London (TfL) services including the London Underground.
The ASA board launched an investigation into Wahed’s advertisement after receiving a reported 75 complaints that the ads were offensive.
After investigating, the ASA ruled that the advertising breached The UK’s code of non-broadcast advertising (CAP Code), specifically rule 4.1 which concerns ‘Harm and Offence’.
According to the ASA, the posters could cause offense to tourists visiting from abroad as currency can be linked to someone’s national identity.
The CAP code is a ‘rule book’ of advertising codes, updated on a regular basis, which must be followed by all advertisers, agencies, and media in the UK.
In a statement explaining its decision, the ASA says: “We considered some viewers, particularly people from the United States or Eurozone countries, would have viewed their nation’s currency as being culturally significant and a symbol of their national identity.
“Although we acknowledged Wahed Invest’s view that they had not directly criticised a specific group, and that depictions of burning banknotes were commonly encountered, we considered the burning of banknotes would have caused serious offence to some viewers.
“We therefore concluded that the ads were likely to cause serious offence.”
Wahed operates a Halal investment platform, offering investment opportunities made in accordance with Islamic principles.
In response to the investigation, Wahed reportedly said that: “The burning of banknotes was not offensive and was portrayed in popular culture like film and TV.”
It also highlighted that phrases such as ‘money to burn’ and ‘burning a hole in my pocket’ are common in day-to-day speech.
It added: “Had the idea of burning money been a cause for widespread offence, such language or visual representations would not be as commonly used or as easily understood in society as they are.”
