Watchdog bans Make Poverty History ads (September 12, 2005)

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Make Poverty History (MPH), hailed as one of the most effective lobbying campaigns ever with its simple message and signature white wrist band, was banned on Monday from television and radio advertising in Britain.

 

Advertising watchdog Ofcom said the goals of its campaign, including an array of stars clicking their fingers to ram home the message that a child dies of preventable poverty every three seconds, were political and therefore outlawed.

 

"We have reached the unavoidable conclusion that MPH is a body whose objects are 'wholly or mainly' political as defined under the Act. MPH is therefore prohibited from advertising on television or radio," Ofcom said on its Web site.

 

Make Poverty History, an amalgam of 530 charities and aid groups that is part of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, said it regretted the decision.

 

"The millions of people who are wearing a white band or taking action as part of a campaign do not see this as a narrow party-political issue. They see it as the great moral issue of our time," it said in a statement.

 

The organisation was created last year with the single goal of persuading the governments of the Group of Eight industrialised countries to write off billions of dollars in debt owed by the world's poorest countries.

 

Prime Minister Tony Blair and his finance minister Gordon Brown have both praised Make Poverty History as having been the deciding factor in convincing the G8 in June this year to agree to write off more than $40 billion (21 billion pounds) worth of debts.

 

 

 

:angry:

[glow=red:d63d01683f] WTF!!!![/glow:d63d01683f]

TWATS!! :angry:

I KNOW WTF

Idiots.

 

 

Hahaha

 

why was he doing that. does anyone know?

^i dont know..but that pic is just great for this thread

:rolleyes: feckin' idiots..... I can't believe that!!

stop and think for a second. The ads strongly suggest that its the government's fault that someone dies every 3 seconds (I'm not disputing this, just stating it). So, that makes the advert political, and those aren't allowed on television.

I'm not saying its a good thing, but it makes sense if you look past the headline.

 

And, those ads have been playing for a long time. I don't think them being taken off the air months after starting is that bad. Most commercials only last a month or two.

bah!! is it only in the UK that they aren't allowed?? Because I see them all the time here...

ho..i always see them here in mexico...

bah!! is it only in the UK that they aren't allowed?? Because I see them all the time here...

 

I don't know about the US or the UK, but during Canada's last election, each party was given a timeslot on CBC Radio (Canada's BBC) for an ad. There were no political ads on radio, and very few on television.

 

 

edit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_campaign

 

Under "Techniques":

advertising in the media (TV adverts are very common in the USA and banned in the UK; other techniques include newspaper adverts and billboards)

i think in mexico political ads are allowed, i see a lot of them...and the one of "MPH" was big when live 8 was announced, i dont see it as i used to but yes i have seen it here...

It is the government's fault that more is not done to aid these people.

 

Television should represent EVERYTHING fairly and completely. What's accomplished by blinding the public to political issues????

 

It's incredibly stupid, unfair and pointless.

 

Thank god for the internet.

no, actually, its not completely stupid. Why would it be fair for the richest party to spend the most on television advertising, thereby influencing the voters? And what about keeping the media from a political bias? (yeah, a pipe dream for the states, but it works in other countries)

Ok. Make Poverty History is not an add to get someone elected, or a campaign for a party. It's to help people! To wake people up and raise awareness for a huge issue that can bring down the world. I don't understand why it is being treated like this. Since when is caring about the world a liberal view, or not wanting to bring more aid to people dying in Africa and other impoverished areas conservative? How do party lines have anything to do with this?

^ right one here here

 

*we will now ban all the news threads in coldplaying.com because they're too political better yet anyone who does try to talk politics will be shot down on site, we now have as zero tolerance approach*

:rolleyes: seems to me like they r fraid of somefin....

Maybe they could make the ads less 'political'... Change them so there won't be any political slant, then relaunch them.

 

But I think the solution is to ammend the regulations... Someone needs to lobby to have the law changed

the crazy why would you ban that! i mean its a cause. people are so stupid!

So Much For Freedom of Speech!

and they say we have freedom.... :/

I read this on NME...just and was shocked!

 

No one has a right to say what shit is going on in the world I guess,

yet politicians can lie through their teeth on TV and thats all dandy!

It doesn't make sense. I bet the government contols (or one of their unelected spin doctors) the people that banned the ads.

bah!! is it only in the UK that they aren't allowed?? Because I see them all the time here...

 

yeah it's uk law that no politcal ads can be run on the radio or the tv acoording to Ofcom (the office of communications) which act like the FCC and FTC do in the States. I just did a presentation on this and how much bs I think it is in one of my advertising classes today.