Watchdog bans 'mental' advert on the radio

The advertising watchdog has ruled the Bognor Motors ad breached good taste and decency.

The sentence which offended the Advertising Standards Authority said: 'For leasing, sales service and rental, if you don't go to Bognor Motors, you must be mental'.

The ASA considered listeners would infer the word 'mental' referred to those potential customers who chose not to avail themselves of the services offered by Bognor Motors and that those customers were, therefore, not of full mental capacity.

"We considered the reference was likely to be seen to denigrate those with mental health problems and concluded the ad could cause serious offence to some listeners," it said.

A single complaint about the ad was made by the Bognor town centre-based mental health charity Capital Project Trust.

The trust told the ASA it believed the advert could be offensive to those with mental health problems.

Defending the ad, Bognor Motors, of Christie Place, said the word 'mental' was often used in common parlance without serious implication and was not considered to be offensive terminology.

The company said it had used the word in good humour in the context of the ad and it was not directed at those with mental health problems.

The ad had been withdrawn once the complaint had been made.

The Radio Advertising Clearance Centre had also agreed the word was meant in its 'colloquial and innocuous sense' and believed the ad was 'unlikely to offend listeners generally, nor was it likely to offend those with mental health problems specifically'.

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