Leeds burger van's Madeleine McCann posts ruled offensive

Adverts by a takeaway firm featuring Madeleine McCann were likely to cause distress and offence, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled.

Leeds-based Otley Burger Company posted a number of adverts on social media featuring the missing child to coincide with Mother's Day.

The ASA said it had received three complaints about the ads which it upheld.

The Otley Burger Company said the posts would not appear again.

The food business had posted the adverts on a number of platforms, including Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

They featured images of Madeleine, who disappeared on a family holiday in Portugal in 2007, and her mother Kate McCann.

One also showed a man running with a smaller image of Madeleine in his hands and the lines "Burgers for dinner?" and "Happy Mother's Day to all the mums out there".

The ASA said it had received three complaints and asked social media platforms to remove content pending an investigation.

It said the disappearance of Madeleine McCann had been high-profile and considered images of her would be "instantly recognisable".

"We further considered that any reference to a missing child was likely to be distressing, and that in the context of an ad promoting a burger company the distress caused was unjustified."

Meta said it had reviewed the content in an Instagram post and had removed it for violating their policies and had reviewed the account, removing further content, and placed restrictions on it.

Twitter said the tweet had been deleted.

The ASA said adverts must not use shocking claims or images to attract attention and must not contain material likely to cause serious or widespread offence.

It said the use of the text and image "further trivialised the circumstances surrounding Madeleine's disappearance and made light of a distressing news story concerning reports of child abduction and serious crime".

Linking the post to Mother's Day "was likely to have compounded the distress of those who saw the ads, and particularly for those who may have experienced the disappearance of a child" it added.

"For those reasons, we concluded that the ads were likely to cause unjustified distress and serious and widespread offence," the watchdog said.

It said it had told the company to ensure the ads did not reappear.

The company said the ads had been removed and would not appear again.

It is not the first occasion the company has posted controversial content. On Father's Day last year it posted images of well-known serial killers.

The ASA said by the time a complaint was made the adverts had been removed, but the company was reminded of its duty to advertise responsibly at that time.

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