Effects of violence and brand familiarity on responses to television commercials

An examination of two advertising campaigns from 1996/7 and their potential for breaching the English common law regarding obscenity and blasphemy, despite compliance with the rigorous Advertising Standards Authority's codes of conduct. The two campaigns analysed are illustrated below. One is for the film Larry Flynt and the other is the Church of England's Christmas advertising campaign ‘Bad Hair Day’. Much use is made of the application of existing case law to the problem, with some discussion of those areas of law still left open to interpretation. Because of the nature of the common law no absolute conclusions can be reached on such points, but the reader should have sufficient information to form his/her own judgment for the future.