Climate change ad showing drowning puppies to be investigated after 300 complaints
A Government climate change advert featuring drowning puppies and crying rabbits will be investigated by the advertising watchdog after receiving hundreds of complaints from the public.
The advert begins with a father reading a bedtime story to his daughter which turns into a frightening account of the impact of climate change.
He is heard saying that “some places could even disappear under the sea” adding that “children would have to live with the horrible consequences”.
Cartoon images of a puppy drowning in floods, a kitten floating on an upturned table and a rabbit weeping as drought takes hold in its habitat, are all part of the advert.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the advert had prompted 375 complaints. It will now investigate and look into claims that the 70 second advert should not have been shown before the 9pm watershed because children would have been watching.
It will also examine whether the advert would have been ‘distressing’ for youngsters and whether it constituted ’scaremongering’.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change launched the £6 million pound campaign earlier this month.
The DECC produced the hard-hitting advert after research showed that more than half of the UK public think climate change will have no effect on them.
A Downing Street petition that calls on the Government to ’stop wasting taxpayers’ money on climate change propaganda designed to frighten out children’ had attracted more than 500 signatures.
Joan Ruddock, the Energy and climate change minister, has stood by the adverts saying it was consistent with Government policy on the issue.
She said it was based on the latest science and assessments and said it was not aimed at children but adults.
The investigation is expected to last for two to three months before a ruling is made.
