ASA Adjudication: NO2ID advertisement
According to the Advertising Standards Authority web site:
Ad
An ad for NO2ID, an anti-identity card campaign group, appeared in The Guardian. The ad showed a close-up photograph of Tony Blair; on his upper lip was a barcode. Text under the photograph stated “id cards have worked well in Europe before. www.no2id.net”.
Issue
The [eight] complainants thought the barcode on Tony Blair’s upper lip made him resemble Hitler and the portrayal of a public figure as Hitler was offensive.
The ASA concludes:
Assessment
Not upheld
The ASA noted the ad had been intended to encourage discussion on a sensitive political issue. We considered that, although the ad may have been distasteful to some, it was unlikely to be seen as making a serious comparison between Tony Blair and Hitler but instead as highlighting a lobbying groups opinion that ID cards should not be introduced because of the threat to civil liberty they posed. We concluded that, as such, the ad was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence.
We investigated the ad under CAP Code clause 5.1 (Decency) but did not find it in breach.
November 29th, 2006 at 13:07
“Unlikely to be seen as making a serious comparison between Tony Blair and Hitler”? I’m disappointed, people, you clearly didn’t get the message across properly. (-:
November 29th, 2006 at 13:36
The ad was a superb attack on Blair. I was watching a programme on the occupation of Holland in the world at war series on the freeview channel 12. you could feel the exasperation in Laurence Olivier’s voice when he said that Hitler decided to fingerprint every Dutch person and give them id cards. It was meant to and did make resistance against the Germans very difficult. Any kind of resistance against the will of an out of touch or unpopular govt will in our country become vastly more difficult. Blair is Hitler, he just doesn’t know it yet.