People across the country are reacting to the news that a burger joint has been banned from using pictures of Madeleine McCann which they used to advertise the company.
The Otley Burger Company in Leeds has been banned from using pictures of the young girl who disappeared in 2007 after the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) received three complaints reporting the post as 'likely to cause serious or widespread offence and distress.'
This comes after founder Joe Scholey posted images of Madeleine and her mum Kate McCann on his business' social media accounts on Mother’s Day (March 27) captioned: "With burgers this good, you’ll leave your kids at home. What’s the worst that could happen [sic] Happy Mother’s Day to all the mums out there.”
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However, this was not the first time the company had made controversial posts, in 2021 it posted an image of disgraced mum Karen Matthews, who pretended her daughter Shannon had been abducted and previously the company has also shared a post featuring images of killers The Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe and Fred West and necrophile Jimmy Saville, among other controversial figures, on last year’s Father’s Day.
Regarding the latest posts from this year, The ASA asked social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to remove the posts and suspend the accounts because of the nature of the content causing such concern.
A spokesperson from ASA, said: "The disappearance of Madeleine McCann had been a high-profile and long-running media story which remained widely known. We considered the images of them would be instantly recognisable to many people.
“We further considered that any reference to a missing child was likely to be distressing, and that in the context of an ad promoting a burger company the distress caused was unjustified.”
The background of the removed ad showed a picture of a man running with a smaller image of Madeleine in his hands. The ASA said this part of the ad "trivialised" Madeleine's disappearance and "made light of a distressing news story concern reports of child abduction".
People across the city have had their say after news of the offensive advert with some even urging people to boycott the company over the “shocking piece of advertising.”
Sarah-Jane Preece said: “Poor taste. We don’t know what that child suffered. Her parents let her down but at the end of the day it’s not something to joke about.
Sarah Louise Dawson said: “Good!! Should've got a massive fine too. Horrible man.”
Lee Stowe said: “Shocking piece of advertising. Whatever anyone feels about who's to blame this is still making fun of the abduction and probable murder of a child so people should boycott this business! Maybe then he would think twice.”
But others argued people should be allowed to “joke about what they want.”
Do you think the advert was offensive? Have your say in the comments below.
Craig Ripley added: “The old saying is there's no such thing as bad publicity, everyone's talking about his business now, it's not the first time he's done either.”
Dion Smith said: “If you don't like it, simply do not buy from them. BUT anybody should be allowed to joke about what they want.”
The Otley Burger Company told complainants the ads had been removed and wouldn't appear again. Twitter said the tweet from the company was deleted and Meta said they removed the post on Instagram for violating policies after review.
The businesses Instagram account was also the subject to a wider review that led to further content being remove and restrictions on the account.
