Posters for the film Lee Cronin’s The Mummy have been banned from appearing where children might see them over concerns their realistic depiction of a dead child was likely to cause distress.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received 30 complaints about ads for the film, which included a poster seen on the London Underground and on an outdoor billboard showing a close-up image of a female with a mummified appearance and one eye swollen shut, and covered in brown material.
The ad included the text: “Some things are meant to stay buried. Lee Cronin’s The Mummy.”
TV and live streaming service ads showed fleeting scenes of a body being removed from a sarcophagus and a woman who looked distressed as a greying hand with long brittle nails brushed her cheek, and ended with the mother saying: “I just want my daughter back.”
The ad was cleared by Clearcast with a post-7.30pm scheduling restriction.
Many of the complainants believed the ads were distressing for children and adults.
Warner Bros said the poster ads had been prepared with “due responsibility to consumers and society”, and were not designed to create fear or distress, were not likely to cause serious or widespread offence, and were suitable for display in untargeted media.
It further explained the character depicted in the poster ads was that of a “living mummy” who was returned to her parents as a teenager or young adult, many years after having been kidnapped as a child.
It argued the posters used a face with a neutral expression and avoided elements of violence, threat or intimidation, intended to reduce any risk of distress.
They added that the posters had been submitted to TfL’s advertising partner, Global, and had been accepted for display on the London Underground network.
Warner Bros said the trailer had been designed so that the horror themes were implied rather than shown explicitly and contained no “jump scares, no violence or gore”, and no graphic imagery.
Upholding complaints about the posters, the ASA said the grey and ashen appearance of the female’s skin, the dry and cracked lips and mouth, one eye swollen shut and the other fixed and vacant, together with the sunken and lifeless appearance of the face, gave a realistic impression of a dead child.
It added: “Because the figure had recognisable human features, we considered that viewers were likely to understand it as a realistic depiction of a dead child.”
It said the posters on the London Underground and outdoor billboard had the potential to be seen by a large number of people, including children.
It said: “We acknowledged that Warner Bros said that the ads were not placed within 100 metres of any schools. However, we understood that the ad was visible from a children’s nursery.
“In any case, we considered the image was likely to distress young children and that it was unsuitable for display where it was likely to be seen by them. We therefore concluded that the ads were unsuitable for outdoor display and therefore breached the code.”
The ASA did not uphold complaints about a TV ad and two posters displayed on the London Underground for another Warner Bros film, They Will Kill You.
Some 20 complainants argued that the ads glamorised violence and knife crime, were likely to distress viewers and that the posters were unsuitable for display in untargeted public spaces.
However, the ASA found the imagery was highly stylised and clearly reflected the fictional, action-horror nature of the film, and also concluded that the post-7.30pm scheduling restriction for the TV ad was sufficient to reduce the likelihood of young children seeing it.
