Underbelly ads too hot for ‘G’ timeslot
Underbelly 2 ads breached the Code of Practice for their use of guns in a G rated timeslot -but will Nine now stand up to its own promise to ACMA?
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
Channel Nine’s ads for Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities have breached the Industry Code of Practice for content that was inappropriate for a G viewing timezone.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority found ruled that a menacing use of a gun in its promotions was too strong, when airing at 5:15pm during cricket telecasts and again during the 6pm News last February.
The footage included a bank guard being knocked out by a shotgun wielded by a man in a balaclava.
“Community concern about depictions of guns and violence are reflected in the code’s provisions. The stricter classification criteria for promotions are safeguards designed to ensure that promotions for M programs are suitable for viewing by G or PG audiences,” said ACMA Chairman Chris Chapman. “The Underbelly promotion depicted menacing gun use despite explicit prohibition in the industry’s own code.”
The promotions also contained other images including implied punching and a man with blood on his face but these did not contravene the Code due to the way they were incorporated in the promotion.
ACMA also found that Nine failed to adequately respond to a complainant within 30 working days and secondly noted that the response was not substantial enough.
ACMA says Nine has now implemented new classification procedures for promotions, including programmes that are being promoted in a lower classification time zone. A new mail logging and complaint identification process will also be implemented.
This is the first breach found by ACMA for the second series of Underbelly, following several for the first series.
Earlier this year Nine CEO David Gyngell pledged that Underbelly would abide by classification rules, even providing a confidential estimate of its revenue for the timeslots which ACMA could consider for fines if the undertakings were breached. It was the first time that ACMA has been offered enforceable undertakings from a commercial television licensee.
Nine and ACMA are yet to announce if those undertakings will now translate to any fines.
Share
- Tagged with Underbelly
4 Responses
I wouldn’t exactly call this an Underbelly breach. It was a promotion that breached the code, not Underbelly, so I very much doubt this would fall within the bounds of the the enforceable undertaking.
Probably the way they will get around it (and the reason I didn’t use it in a headline). Still think it’s worth raising….
who gives a s***. I can’t believe they’re talking about Ads, not even the show itself but ads that aired almost a year ago. Move on please
An AMCA breach means what exactly? Public exposure that Nine did the wrong thing? No Fines; No penalty?! Its a pointless organisation but at least it gives the christian groups someone to complain to.