An image retouching service firm, the Pixel House, had launched this contentious print advertisement campaign in UK that attracted fierce criticism for being offensive. The advertisement is showing a desk covered with photographs and a clipboard of a front page of a tabloid newspaper. The photograph in question has depicted a man in military uniform urinating onto a hooded man. The accompanying text reads, ‘Need better retouching? Call Joe Connolly at the Pixel House’. Many complainants felt that the advertisement portrayed the alleged military abuse of Iraqi prisoners of war and considered on this ground that the advertisement was offensive.
The advertisers argued that the advertisement was referred to the controversy that engulfed The Daily Mirror’s publication of fake photographs. They further argued that the advertisement showed those photographs with enough of The Daily Mirror’s logo for readers to comprehend that the advertisement was an amusing take at Piers Morgan and his decision to publish the images. They clarified that the advertisement never intended to be a comment on events in the Middle East.
The ASA acknowledged that the advertisement referred to a topical news story and was intended to be entertaining. However, it ruled that although the imagery was fake, the picture of a soldier urinating on a hooded man depicted an act of abuse and humiliation and was likely to seriously offend some readers. The ASA consequently upholding the complaints banned the advertisement.
