Anti-begging posters put up by Nottingham City Council have been banned after complaints they implied that all homeless people were engaged in criminal and antisocial behaviour.Yeah, it's the 99% that give the others a bad name....
Over the summer the council ran a series of five posters to persuade the public to stop giving money to beggars.
One poster featured an image of a homeless man in sleeping bag begging with the text “Begging: watch your money go to a fraud. Beggars aren’t what they seem.”
A second featured a close-up of a person smoking a roll-up cigarette with the text “Begging: watch your money go up in smoke. Begging funds the misuse of drugs”.
And a third featured an image of a discarded lager can and the line “Begging: watch your money go down the drain. Begging funds the misuse of alcohol.”Who could possibly object to th...
Oh.
The Advertising Standards Authority received seven complaints that the ads were offensive because they portrayed homeless people in a derogatory manner and implied they are engaged in criminal and antisocial behaviour.The truth is no longer a defence. Not when there's do-gooders to be appeased!
The ASA said that four of the five ads portrayed all beggars as “disingenuous and undeserving individuals”.
“We further considered the ads reinforced negative stereotypes of a group of individuals, most of whom were likely to be considered as vulnerable [and] who faced a multitude of issues and required specialist support,” said the ASA.
“On that basis we concluded [four of the ads] were likely to cause serious or widespread offence.”
The ASA therefore banned the ads.Isn't it about time the silent majority, who don't want to have to be hassled for money when they go shopping, stood up and said 'You're out of order'..?
11 comments:
Nobody listens to the majority even when they stand up. The decision makers tend to be SJWs themselves.
Until the majority start using all means at their disposal then they will be ignore, a few letters and still voting for the same scumbags mean that we can safely be ignored.
Nottingham is said to be a place where there is a high proportion of recent migrant population. So who is doing the begging? Who is doing the complaining about them? Who is complaining about the complainers?
Couldn't one just ignore the ASA? What powers do they hold?
An articulate Romanian and his mongrel dog have assumed temporary residence at the foot of our local Tesco's steps. His willingness to accept notes in any currency and an assurance that failure to give something is terribly passé nowadays, is quite without precedent. Shoppers are left in no doubt that disputes with reluctant contributors are resolved by firearms in his native country.
It's not rocket science, do we really need someone in authority to instruct us not to give to beggers? Just walk on by, give them nothing.
I believe, Matt Wilson, that the ASA works as a self-regulating body. In others words, obey our dictates or the government will step in and do the dictating for us.
I suppose the issue is how things are portrayed, but as in pron it can get to be a fine line between what some people say is good and some say is bad. On balance though the ASA will side with most complainants on the basis that the ten or so who complain are more active than the 100,000 who can't bothered to complain or think it all unimportant. I imagine too no one writes to the ASA praising a poster.
As for beggars, well if you will invite the third world in to a nation you have to accept that their habits were formed in the third world and won't go away. Also there is money -- free money -- in it and all without taxation, which normally is only available much, much higher up the food chain.
Again Stengle nails it: free money untaxed, normally only available much higher up the food chain. How true.
The ASA can't ban ads.
It can only recommend.
It's a trade body, not an arm of government.
I wish someone would do something about chuggers.
I often feel that the only way to stop them is to use a 7.62mm hollow point between the eyes, but unfortunately polod feels that this would be an over-reaction.
I think I recall seeing one of those adds, or a predecessor there of, "My drug dealer needs to buy a new gun."
If you really want to help people sleeping rough, give to the Sally Ann.
"Nottingham is said to be a place where there is a high proportion of recent migrant population. So who is doing the begging?"
So does Southend, given the proximity to London. Yet the beggars here are uniformly white British.
"Couldn't one just ignore the ASA?"
It would be refreshing to see someone try, wouldn't it?
" I imagine too no one writes to the ASA praising a poster."
Squeaky wheels always get the grease...
"I wish someone would do something about chuggers."
Oddly enough, I'm rarely bothered by these. Word must have got round! :D
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