MOTHERS MATTER/Supplied
An advertisement from Mothers Matter has been criticised as dangerous, with the Mental Health Foundation saying it could cost lives.
A television advert labelled “dangerous” and potentially life-threatening has returned to air, but will now screen only after 8.30pm and with details for the Suicide Crisis Helpline. The ad, from lobby group Mothers Matter, was ordered off-air in March after the Advertising Standards Authority received 13 complaints about it. In a ruling, the authority agreed the ad “was likely to cause harm” and it was pulled form television. The ASA complaints board was critical of the Commercial Approvals Bureau, the body that applies ratings and approves ads for broadcast, which previously allowed the ad to screen on any show that wasn’t children’s programming. Had the ad screened only after the “watershed” of 8.30pm, the board said it would have mitigated – but not erased – the potential for harm.