Ad description
An in-app ad for the app Happy Hospital, seen on 17 November 2024, in the app Bus Out. The ad showed several animated pregnant women in a hospital setting. Doctors attended to the women as they gave birth and, after a short time, a ghost icon of a baby and the word “FAILED” appeared above two of the women. One of the women became angry and the other began to cry. The ad ended with a button which contained the text “Can you do better?”.
Issue
The complainant, who believed the ad trivialised miscarriage, challenged whether the ad was offensive and likely to cause unnecessary distress.
Response
DragonPlus Game Ltd did not respond to the ASA’s enquiries.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA was concerned by DragonPlus Game Ltd’s lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
The CAP Code required marketers to avoid causing serious or widespread offence and to ensure advertising was prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society. They must not cause fear or distress without justifiable reason and, if it could be justified, the fear or distress should not be excessive.
The animated ad depicted a hospital setting with pregnant women being attended to by doctors. After a short time, a ghost icon of a baby appeared above one of the women, who was shown to be angry, and then above a second woman, who began to cry. We considered that the ad portrayed the women experiencing miscarriage or stillbirth. The ad featured bright colours and a cartoonish animation style, including characters with large eyes and exaggerated facial expressions, which we considered gave the ad a playful and light-hearted tone. We considered that the cartoon depiction of miscarriage or stillbirth and the playful tone made miscarriage or stillbirth appear trivial.
We considered that the ad, in portraying miscarriage or stillbirth in a trivial way, was irresponsible and likely to cause serious offence, particularly in the context of an ad for a mobile app game. We understood that miscarriage and stillbirth were significant events for someone to experience and could be traumatic for those involved. We considered, therefore, that its portrayal in the ad was likely to cause unjustified distress, especially in those with lived experience of miscarriage or stillbirth. In particular, the use of cartoon ghost icons and the text "FAILED" to depict the death of a baby was likely to cause unjustified distress and was irresponsible in making light of miscarriage and stillbirth.
On that basis we considered that the ad trivialised miscarriage and stillbirth, and we therefore concluded that the ad was socially irresponsible and was likely to cause unjustified distress and serious offence.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 1.3 (Social responsibility) and 4.1 and 4.2 (Harm and offence).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told DragonPlus Game Ltd to ensure that future ads were socially responsible and did not cause unjustified distress or serious offence. We referred the matter to CAP’s compliance team.
