Objection to Nokia advert upheld

A COMPLAINT that an advert for Nokia mobiles encouraged people to take photos of strangers on the Luas and post them on Facebook, was upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland.

Part of the advert, which featured speech bubbles on the roof of the Luas, read: “Dude, the girl sitting next to me is so hot!” “Take a photo and Facebook me.”

The complainant said the advert had encouraged or condoned strangers taking photographs of random individuals and encouraged invasion of privacy.

Nokia said the advert did not encourage behaviour that would be considered out of place in today’s society.

A recent meeting of the authority’s complaints committee found that an “individual may not appreciate their photograph being taken and then being posted on a social network online without their permission or knowledge.”

A complaint was upheld against a radio advert for mobile phone network Just Mobile which featured a phone being answered during a funeral Mass.

The complainant said the advert was “offensive and insensitive”. He referred to a fatal road crash which had taken place around the time the advertisement was aired.

The committee found that it was likely to cause “grave offence” and there were “still some situations where the use of humour was not appropriate”.

Broadband provider Eircom objected to an advert by Imagine Wimax broadband which claimed that Eircom customers were being “ripped off”. The television advert featured a man playing guitar and singing while the lyrics were shown on screen. The song began: “I was with Eircom once upon a time, so many bundles confused my mind, then Imagine came knocking on my door, now I won’t be ripped off anymore.”

The authority upheld the complaint and found that using the term “ripped off” unfairly attacked or discredited another business.