A television advert for Lionsgate’s horror film Saw 3D has been banned in the UK after a 10-year-old child complained that it was “distressing” and “inappropriately scheduled”.
The unnamed 10-year-old saw the advert, which begins with a man screaming and reaching towards the viewer with blood on his hand, at 8.29pm during The Gadget Show on UK TV station Channel 5.
It had been cleared to screen with a post-7.30pm restriction. But the Advertising Standards Agency upheld the child’s complaint, ruling that the advert must not be broadcast again in its current form before 9 pm.
The ASA said: “We considered that, although the ad was clearly for a film and therefore based in fantasy, the scenes of people in the cinema - particularly those where they were suddenly trapped by metal restraints and where the figure reached out and pulled a cinema-goer back towards the screen - linked the scenes from the film with a recognisably real situation.”
It added: “We considered it was therefore likely to cause distress to young children … and a post-7.30pm restriction was not sufficient.”
Saw 3D, the seventh and final installment in the popular horror franchise, was released in UK cinemas in October last year by Lionsgate, with the DVD set for release later this month.
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