ANTI-gun campaigners yesterday welcomed an Advertising Standards Authority decision to reject shooting lobby complaints over an advert made for the Snowdrop campaign.
The commercial, made by London agency Delaney Fletcher Bozell on behalf of the Snowdrop campaign before it disbanded on May 1, was the subject of 56 complaints, mainly from sporting associations and individual gun owners.
But in a report to be published today, the ASA, while acknowledging the offence caused to gun users, rejected all of the complaints.
Mrs Ann Pearston, who was closely involved in organising the advert during her time as spokeswoman for the Snowdrop campaign, and Mrs Gill Marshall-Andrews, chairwoman of the Gun Control Network, which co-ordinates the anti-gun lobby nationally, yesterday commended the authority on its decision.
The advertisement, featuring a voice-over by actor Sean Connery, was shown in cinemas throughout the country in April, and infuriated members of the gun lobby.
Pro-gun campaigners called for the ad to be banned before its release, but the ASA refused to consider complaints until after it had been shown.
The advert, showing a human-shaped target being annihilated by a .22 pistol, was intended to increase pressure on politicians to extend the ban on handguns to include those of .22 calibre.
Objections included claims that the advert exaggerated the damage .22 pistols could do, that .22 pistol user do not shoot at human-shaped targets, and that .22 pistols do not emit smoke as they were shown to do in the advert.
One complaint read: ''The advertisement exaggerated the dangers to the public because no crimes had been committed in the UK using a .22 handgun in the last 20 years.''
The ASA report, however, refuted the claims, stating: ''The advertisement would be seen as an expression of the advertisers' opinion on one side of a well-publicised and heated debate about handguns, and the advertisers could, therefore, legitimately exhibit some artistic licence in dramatising the issue to present its point of view. . . given the public debate on the desirability of banning handguns, the approach was not unduly alarmist, misleading, or likely to cause serious or widespread offence.''
Mrs Pearston said yesterday: ''Our whole campaign was offensive to gun club members so these complaints came as no surprise, and we are very pleased the ASA has made the decision not to uphold the complaints.''
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article