A Marmite advert that parodied 1950's science fiction film "The Blob" has been banned from all childrens' programmes in Britain after leaving kids too scared to watch television, the advertising watchdog has said.

Two Marmite adverts featured a giant brown blob rolling along a crowded street, terrifying some people who tried to flee while others ran towards it with delight.

The advert ended with Marmite's slogan: "You either love it or hate it".

Six people complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that their toddlers had been terrified by the adverts, with four refusing to watch television after seeing them and two suffering nightmares.

Unilever Bestfoods, makers of the dark brown savoury spread, argued against imposing a tougher "ex-kids restriction" as broadcasters were likely not to show it during general programmes such as "Pop Idol", which attracted younger viewers.

But the ASA said the complaints were strong enough to ban the advert from all children's programming.

"We accepted that the advertisements' effect on young children would have been hard to anticipate," it added. "However, it was clear from the complaints we received that they had caused distress to very young children." (Reuters-London)


Is your little monster scared of this ad ???

Is that for real??!! How splendid!

It's like the black square that has appeared over the crazy frogs "bits", some one must have phoned in to complain about the genitals on a cartoon frog.

The world has gone mad.

Well said Nick2, it's definitely gone potty.

If I had told my parents I'd been scared of a marmite advert I would have got a scutch on the back of the head and told not to watch the telly. Life was so simple then....:hihi:

May sound daft to adults... but i think from a little persons point of view it could appear quite scary...

I cant stand the ad anyway... lol

ps i can take or leave marmite... i dont love it or hate it...

Originally posted by feargal
If I had told my parents I'd been scared of a marmite advert I would have got a scutch on the back of the head and told not to watch the telly. Life was so simple then....:hihi:

I would have been told to close my eyes or get a cushion :hihi:

What gets me is out of the hundreds of thousands of people who will have seen this, 6 complained and the advert was removed! :loopy:

I'd love to see a TV documentary based on these 6 'complainants', how they live and why they felt the need to complain instead of just telling their kids to shut up and stop being so pathetic! :hihi:

ditto to all the above replies.

Some parents these days molly their kids far too much - I remember being scared witless by the child catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the damn man/thing still makes me shudder if I see it today!! We never thought to ring up the broadcasting services though and ask for it not to be shown every darned Christmas.

We just didnt think it important enough to complain about I suppose and fear was a part of childhhod, like falling off yer bike, cut knees, being scared of bobbies and building dens in the woods without fear of being dragged off by a paedy (eeeh them were t'days.....)

I have a phobia of the dentist due to being held down in my chair screaming by the school dentist and his assistant whilst he filled a tooth in which he had caught a nerve!! My mum had to sit in the waiting room and just listen helplessly - wasnt allowed in!

:gag:

Just reminded me actually, when I was little I had to hide behind the sofa when watching The Dukes of Hazzard... :shocked:

Looking back I can't quite remember or understand what I found scary now! :lol:


(Of course since then I've never been able to look at an orange car again without running away :rolleyes: )

should have done what most boys I knew at the time did Briano....looked at Daisy! :rolleyes:

Were you scared by Daisy Duke's hotpants?!

if it puts children off watching tele it should be shown in every commercial brake. We're constantly being told that too much television is partially responsible for the decline in childrens health.

Originally posted by msbehavin
should have done what most boys I knew at the time did Briano....looked at Daisy! :rolleyes:

That's what scared me!! (As per feargal) lol :clap:


Seriously though, I think it was the car chases that I found frightening... didn't stop me wrecking my remote control cars with re-enactments later though! :heyhey:

People will be complaining that Darleks are scary next, then they will be banned.

I have pulled the sofa away from the wall ready for Dr Who so I can dive behind it if I get scared.

Originally posted by feargal
If I had told my parents I'd been scared of a marmite advert I would have got a scutch on the back of the head and told not to watch the telly. Life was so simple then....:hihi:

I think the kids concerned were 2 & 3 years old. I don't think you're legally allowed to beat 2-year-olds around the head any more. What is the world coming to, indeed.

Ah, but they wouldn't complain again would they?! ;)

Originally posted by nick2
People will be complaining that Darleks are scary next, then they will be banned.


Any "Superior" race that needs a stannah stair lift to ensure world domination is off to a bad start and not overly scary.

Here we go again!!! mamby pamby parents worried about thier little darlings...wrapping them up in cotton wool again...
how on earth are these kids going to get through life if they are scared of an advert!!!!! .....
When i was little myself and several others were scared of Worzel Gummage on the opening titles when he turned round and pulled a horrible face!.. but im ok now...
....get real !:rant:

Originally posted by Swan_Vesta
Any "Superior" race that needs a stannah stair lift to ensure world domination is off to a bad start and not overly scary.

Ah, but apparently they fly now. That's me buggered - I used to have recurring nightmares about being chased through a maze by daleks, until one day I solved it by finding a part of the maze where there was a step up. Looks like those nightmares are going to start recurring again now...

Maybe visualise a narrow tunnel section in the maze Dan, surely daleks are pretty chunky round the base? That'll fox 'em!

well i can see it being scary....but i guess im a wuss haha.

kids are funny...i mean doctor who and worzel gummidge really scared me as a kid...and them my mum goes and buys me a worzel gummidge bed cover!! argh!!! gud job it was reversable and i slept with aunt sally instead ;)

you having therapy for that now then Theo???

This is sick - kids can be "scared" by a blob of marmite but they can be brainwashed by ads with morgages, loans and car insurances - what 3 year goes round driving..... and who the bloody hell are these 6 people? (the report I heard) have they nothing better to do? - they must have a load of money - if the advertising Standard council had any stance to improving the kind of adverts, then look elsewhere!!!

I'm wondering is the six people who complained just happen to work in the publicity department of Marmite?

Originally posted by alchresearch
I'm wondering is the six people who complained just happen to work in the publicity department of Marmite?

They do seem to have done pretty well out of it: on Radio 4 this morning (you know, BBC channel, no advertising & all that), the news included a report on this. It went further than just outlining the situation: it included a detailed description of the exact plot of the ad, a kind of audio storyboard. Marmite couldn't have asked for much better, you can't buy publicity like that!

Originally posted by Moonfire
This is sick - kids can be "scared" by a blob of marmite but they can be brainwashed by ads with morgages, loans and car insurances - what 3 year goes round driving..... and who the bloody hell are these 6 people? (the report I heard) have they nothing better to do? - they must have a load of money - if the advertising Standard council had any stance to improving the kind of adverts, then look elsewhere!!!

huh? Why must these 6 people have lots of money?

And the ASA doesn't have a 'stance' of improving adverts. It regulates the advertising industry by responding to complaints, setting guidelines and pro-actively examining adverts.

I'm not sure what the relevance of car insurance or mortgages adverts is. I'm sure they aren't advertised heavily on childrens channels or during child targetted programming, and i'm sure that most children just ignore them.

Originally posted by Cyclone
huh? Why must these 6 people have lots of money?

Because it normally boils down to money

And the ASA doesn't have a 'stance' of improving adverts. It regulates the advertising industry by responding to complaints, setting guidelines and pro-actively examining adverts.

The ASA have the power to regulate the adverts to a certain extent - maybe not too much but more power than you or I.

I'm not sure what the relevance of car insurance or mortgages adverts is. I'm sure they aren't advertised heavily on childrens channels or during child targetted programming, and i'm sure that most children just ignore them.

...and other adverts on kids TV has an affect on what your kids say and do - and so you really believe that kids don't take all this stuff in?

Originally posted by Moonfire
Because it normally boils down to money



The ASA have the power to regulate the adverts to a certain extent - maybe not too much but more power than you or I.



...and other adverts on kids TV has an affect on what your kids say and do - and so you really believe that kids don't take all this stuff in?

ermm, so how do the ASA identify the wealth of people making complaints? I suspect they would defend themselves vigorously against an allegation that they put any weight on a complainants financial status.
Regulate is not to say that they exist to "improve" adverts. There remit is to ensure that the advertising stays within certain rules, ie not lying, not using overtly sexual themes, and for specific types of advertising other rules, such as not advertising cars based on high performance or speed.
I won't disagree that adverts have an effect, but advertisers wanting the most for their money place adverts in slots where the target audience is appropriate. Children don't take out mortgages or car insurance and so an advert that they see is a waste of money.
Since children have no interest or influence on parents regarding insurance or mortgages and will see very few such adverts i'm not sure what your point regarding them is. Should these adverts be banned because they aren't relevant to children? That makes no sense. They certainly aren't likely to scare children (we can also infer that from a lack of complaints regarding them).
So i'll ask again, what is the relevance of other advertising to the issue of the marmite advert being pulled due to a few complaints?

ermm, so how do the ASA identify the wealth of people making complaints? I suspect they would defend themselves vigorously against an allegation that they put any weight on a complainants financial status.

I'mb sure they would - I was just voicing my opinion - I didn't say I was right ;)

it annoys me when it is obvious that a few people mention that their kids were scared by this advert and yet there are these adverts for morgages - and I'm sure that the only link is that the fact that they are on TV

....Maybe my point is that there is no consistancies in the regulation of the adverts - if you want to advertise so the kids want it then you just do toys or shows that are on that channel - just something better than these adverts.

maybe i'm being stupid.

I still don't see your point. Some people complained about the marmite add because it scared there children. This leads you to say 'and yet there are these adverts for mortgages'.
But no-one is scared by mortage adverts, and they aren't even shown at the same times or on the same channels as the marmite advert... I just don't see any link (apart from them both being on tv).
What is it about mortgage adverts that you dislike, do you believe it's somehow damaging children, or is it just that they annoy you personally? If they do the latter, then complain, although a complaint that a generic type of advert is annoying isn't likely to have any effect.

Originally posted by pinlock
....with four refusing to watch television after seeing them....

That sounds like an extremely good thing to me! More terrifying ads!

We didn't have a tv when I was two or three, so no problem there!

I remember having nightmares about a couple of kids tv programmes when I was abut 5 or 6 though - one about some puppet type insects who lived at the bottom of a garden and another one about a giant who nearly ate a child in a hotdog. Scary stuff!

Kids are frightened by all sorts of unpredictable stuff. There was a litle girl I used to babysit for who was terrified of beards - whenever she saw a man with a beard she would run away and start screaming and crying. So do we ban everyone on kids tv from having a beard?!

Kids are frightened by all sorts of unpredictable stuff. There was a litle girl I used to babysit for who was terrified of beards - whenever she saw a man with a beard she would run away and start screaming and crying. So do we ban everyone on kids tv from having a beard?! [/B]

I think that might be a kid thing :)

Really?! My dad had a beard, so I suppose I was used to it! I thought it was a bit strange but maybe more common than I thought!

our kid freaked out every time he saw a man with a beard - it was so bad when a collegue came round we had to put them in separate rooms :)

Originally posted by msbehavin
you having therapy for that now then Theo???

NAH....just have a fit if i see someone with a scraggy jacket and straw coming out of it :D

Originally posted by cruella
Here we go again!!! mamby pamby parents worried about thier little darlings...wrapping them up in cotton wool again...
how on earth are these kids going to get through life if they are scared of an advert!!!!! .....
When i was little myself and several others were scared of Worzel Gummage on the opening titles when he turned round and pulled a horrible face!.. but im ok now...
....get real !:rant:



If there is a scheduled programme on tv which scares your children you can choose either watch it or not watch it.

With adverts you don't have that luxury as you don't know what will be screened, it just happens. No choice there.

They also pulled my other favourite add, the one where the guy throws-up a whole dog :(

Cruella,
Are you sure that it was Worzel Gummidge that frightened you as a child? It might have been Michael Foot, the former Labour Party leader. They were separated at birth.

Originally posted by beckyaa
Kids are frightened by all sorts of unpredictable stuff

You're not wrong. When I was a kid, I was scared of horses. Wanna know why? Do you remember that song "A Four Legged Friend"?...

A four legged friend
A four legged friend
He'll never let you down...

Well, I had a record with that song on when I was about two. And I was convinced that if I ever got on a horse, he'd never let me down. Ever. So I'd be stuck on horseback for the rest of my life. Truly scary.

kids are just pussys these days aren't they
when i was 5 I fist watched chucky..I watched the blob when I was about 6

Originally posted by nick2
They also pulled my other favourite add, the one where the guy throws-up a whole dog :(


lol!! I saw that advert hahahaha it was great