Advertising watchdog pulls 'triggering' pet insurance ad featuring sounds of home invasion
Two complaints were lodged with the Advertising Regulatory Board, accusing Dotsure of using scare tactics to punt its product.
Bruce Whitfield and consumer ninja Wendy Knowler discuss the ARB ruling.
Pet insurance company Dotsure's been ordered to pull its TV advert showing a family talking about how their dog was shot during an armed robbery in their home as it tried to protect one of their two children.
The commercial features a graphic soundtrack, and distressing details of the pet's injuries.
The Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) found that the ad is unsuitable for children, and plays on the fears of adults.
Two consumers lodged complaints, one of them (a Mr D. Ogg) accusing the pet insurer of using scare tactics to punt its product.
He said it exploited South Africans’ worst fears of home invasions, and that it could cause children to fear their dogs being shot in a robbery.
"The Directorate felt that the same story could be conveyed without the traumatic detail and re-enactment. The story is inherently powerful; the choice to use triggering sound effects and traumatic detail unjustifiably plays on the fear that most South Africans have about the safety of their family and pets."
Advertising Regulatory Board
The ARB made the point that many South African parents would take steps to shield their younger children from hearing that story in such a graphic way, and that it could have been told differently.
One of the things Dotsure highlighted in its response is the fact that the ad has a happy ending.
"The advertisement is based on true events that were widely covered in the news. Animal abuse is certainly not promoted, but a heroic animal's rather celebrated."
Knowler points out that fear sells, and that the tactic of fearmongering goes way beyond insurance ads. The cosmetics industry, for instance, plays on our fears around going bald and developing wrinkles.
"The Directorate conceded that all insurance adverts work on our fears - fear of our cars being stolen, hijacked or involved in an accident, of our homes being burnt down or flooded… it was the graphic WAY Dotsure chose to do it, in the context of rampant crime levels in SA, that was the issue. And why we won’t be seeing that ad on our TV screens again."
Wendy Knowler, Consumer Journalist
Be warned that the ad shown below, could be triggering