Luke Owen looks at the outrage from last night’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes trailer (which you can watch here)…
The Great British public are an incredible bunch of people. We love to queue in orderly fashions, a cup of tea is better than a glass of beer and complaining about things that don’t really matter is our bread and butter.
During last night’s World Cup semi-final game against Argentina and Holland, 20th Century Fox aired a clip from their upcoming Dawn of the Planet of the Apes to promote the movie, which will be released on these shores on July 17th. The movie has been getting a vast amount of praise from those who have seen it and Fox are clearly in the game to make a lot of money from this venture, especially if they are going to compete against the money printing machines that is Transformers: Age of Extinction.
However, some people took offence to this latest TV spot.
In the trailer, an ape befriends two humans before taking their gun off them and then shooting them dead. This one scene sparked outrage from certain members of the British public who felt that footage of a 12A movie being shown at 10pm was “too much” and they took to Twitter to share their complaints:
So @ITV it’s ok to show 18rated graphic violence in ads during World Cup coverage? @ASA_UK My child can’t unsee that! #planetoftheapes
— Ben Walker (@SensibleBen) July 9, 2014
.#DawnofApes #DawnofthePlanetoftheApes Gratuitous and irresponsible timing of trailer. Adults will be having nightmares! — J. Paul Murdock (@jpaulmurdock) July 9, 2014
#DawnofApes well done idiots. Show a graphic scene in middle of world cup semi-final. A programme likely to be watched by kids even at 10pm — Ryan Greenaway (@ryangreenaway) July 9, 2014
#DawnofApes @itv should be ashamed of themselves. Do you not think that some families would allow their kids to watch a world cup semi? — Ryan Greenaway (@ryangreenaway) July 9, 2014
It should again be noted that Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a movie that has been classified by the BBFC as a 12A, meaning it is suitable for children of all ages but those under 12 need to be accompanied by an adult. The movie was passed without any cuts being made with the following warnings: “moderate violence, threat, infrequent strong language”.
According to The Advertising Standards Agency, over 100 complaints were filed against ITV for airing the footage which they are currently investigating.
So, who is at fault here? Should we be angry at ITV for airing an advert for a 12A movie past the watershed? Should we be angry at 20th Century Fox for taking advantage of an audience that equated to 9.7 million people to encourage them to see their 12A movie? Or should we be angry at the BBFC for passing this “violent” movie at as 12A with no cuts?
The answer is no one. Because this is a non-issue.
The watershed is there for a reason. TV stations are free to show whatever they like (within reason) between the hours of 9:30pm and 5:30am. If parents are allowing their children to stay up into the watershed, they should be wary that adult content may be shown. ITV aren’t obliged to air “kid-friendly” advertisements during sporting events like the World Cup, even if there is a chance that youngsters might still be awake to watch the football.
It is not the job of ITV to parent your children. Nor is it the job of the BBFC. If you don’t want your children seeing content that you think may upset them, then steer them away from it. 20th Century Fox and ITV played within the rules and they shouldn’t be attacked for doing so. This is a 12A trailer being shown after the watershed, not the original RoboCop being aired instead of Teletubbies. Get some perspective.
Besides, it was 100 moaners of an audience of 9.7 million. That’s 0.001% of the total viewership.
Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors and the host of the Flickering Myth Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
Originally published July 10, 2014. Updated January 18, 2020.
