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‘Very graphic’ Movie World ad ‘not justifiable’, according to ad watchdog

An ad for an event at Movie World which was accused of depicting “abduction, physical and sexual assault” was removed from circulation after the Ads Standards Board determined it was unnecessarily graphic, gory and violent.

The Friday Nights event promotion for a Halloween-themed special event held at Warner Brothers Movie World shows a young woman going through a dream sequence and experiencing various torturous experiences including being strangled, stabbed and chained.


The ad screened before a 6pm screening of MA15+ rated Blade Runner.

A complainant said the advertisement “promotes extreme violence, including sexual assault, and attempted rape and murder”.

Another complaint said the ad should be withdrawn from all channels and Warner Brothers should issue an apology.

Responding to the complaints, Warner Brothers said the language and imagery used is “reminiscent of movies of the horror genre” and the ad does not depict violence, distress or harm “that would cause concern,  distress or harm to reasonable members of the community in the light of generally prevailing community standards”.

“VRTP [Village Roadshow Theme Parks] refutes any claim suggesting the material in the advertisement indicates the female character was raped. Any suggestion she has been/is going to be raped is with all due respect a subjective assumption by the complainant and was certainly not the intention nor do we believe was conveyed in any way in the advertisement,” the advertiser said.

However, the ad watchdog said the ad did not make it clear the protagonist was in a dream and viewers are not aware it is a promotion of an event rather than a movie trailer until the very end of the ad.

“The Board noted that although the scenes are from movies, they are very graphic and depict material that is gory and violent,” the Board said.

Upholding the complaints, the ad watchdog concluded the ad used violence which was not necessary to advertise a theme park.

“The advertisement depicted high level violence that was not justified by the promotion of theme park entertainment and determined that this advertisement, ahead of an M rated movie did present a level of violence that was not justifiable in the context of the product or service advertised,” the watchdog concluded.

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