Fundamentalist Christian poster breached advert code

By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk • February 6, 2008 - 12:10

The ASA ruled that the statement was “likely to be understood to represent the prevailing view of the gay community.“

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Fundamentalist Christian poster breached advert code

A advertising poster for the Christian Congress for Traditional Values which claimed that gay people want to abolish families has been found to breach the advertising standards code.

In an adjudication released today the Advertising Standards Authority judged the poster to be in breach of rules on social responsibility, decency, substantiation, truthfulness and matters of opinion.

A mobile poster for the CCTV showed a family consisting of a man, a woman and a young son and daughter. Body copy beside it stated "GAY AIM: ABOLISH THE FAMILY."

CCTVs website address was printed beneath the body copy and a banner across the picture of the family identified CCTV and showed a logo.

It describes itself as "an alliance of Christians from a wide spectrum of professional and working backgrounds who have pledged to campaign against the declared intention of BBC executives to push back the boundaries' of taste and decency."

The ASA ruled that the statement was "likely to be understood to represent the prevailing view of the gay community."

The CCTV tried to ague that some gay people had spoken out against the traditional family, using literature from the Gay Liberation Front, who disbanded three decades ago.

"We noted that the language used and claim made in the ad did not appear to reflect the stance taken by today's mainstream campaigns by the gay community which expressed a desire for the responsibilities of gay people caring for children to be equal with those of heterosexual people," the ASA ruled.

"We also noted that a family unit today was increasingly less likely to necessarily comprise a married man and woman and their children. We considered CCTV had not supported the claim."

The ASA said that the statement on the poster was likely to be understood to misrepresent the prevailing view of the gay community.

"We considered the statement and the way it appeared was likely to cause offence both to the mainstream gay community and supporters of equality, and was likely to be seen as controversial and possibly inflammatory by a significant number of people who saw the poster in an untargeted medium.

"We concluded that the poster was likely to cause serious or widespread offence and might lead to antisocial behaviour."

The ASA have ordered the CCTV to ensure future campaigns were not presented in a way that could cause serious or widespread offence or which might lead to antisocial behaviour.

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