A television advertisement from Nova Entertainment promoting the Ben, Liam & Belle radio show has been taken off air for breaching violence ethics.
The 30-second on demand TV advertisement features the three radio hosts going out for lunch. Belle explains to Ben and Liam that the chicken parmigiana is called a "parma" after the men refer to it as a "parmie".
They continue to pronounce it wrongly. At the end of the advertisement, they are seen to be wearing electrified collars, and when one of them says "parmie" again, Belle presses a button and they receive a shock.
The complaint submitted to AdStandards said: "Very disturbing content and to my knowledge goes against the Australian human rights commission."
In response, Nova denies that its ad breaches any codes and the violence is justifiable.
"The use of electric dog training collars on Ben and Liam is merely intended to poke fun... a slight ‘correctional’ shock is light-hearted, humorous, and unrealistic, and not intended to convey any suggestion of, or condone, actual violence or pain," Nova said.
"Any reasonable viewer would be able to discern that a scene in which Ben and Liam are wearing electric dog training collars at a pub is entirely fictional, and unrealistic."
However, the Ad Standards panel found that although the men were not actually given an electric shock, most people would consider this scene, even if obviously staged, to be violent.
And as a result, determined the advertisement did present or portray violence in a justifiable context and breached Section 2.3 of the Code.
Nova discontinued the ad.
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