04/09/2008

A series of adverts for an Edinburgh tourist attraction - featuring severed, bloody limbs - have been banned by the advertising regulators, the Advertising Standards Authority.

Posters for Edinburgh Dungeon showed either a dismembered arm or leg, with open wounds, oozing blood.

Following three complaints, the posters have been banned, for fear of upsetting children. Produced by ad agency, Farm, the ASA has ruled the posters are not to appear again.

Says the ASA: "Although we acknowledged that it was clear to adults that the posters represented a display at the Edinburgh Dungeon, we considered that the images could cause distress to young children, who were likely only to focus on the images and would not understand their meaning or that they were intended to be humorous."

The posters advertised an exhibition of Scots soldier, William Wallace, and are meant to suggest he was hung, drawn and quartered. The last of a quartet of posters doubles up as directions: a finger pointing, from a severed arm, ‘First on your right’.

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