Charlton Athletic football club has landed in hot water with the advertising regulator for running a promotional video featuring a man and woman having sex in the middle of its stadium.
The online video, which was featured on Charlton Athletic’s YouTube channel, aimed to promote pitch hire at the club’s ground The Valley.
The video, made to look like it is CCTV footage, showed a man and a woman entering the stadium late at night and appearing to have sex in the centre circle of the pitch before being sprung by floodlights coming on.
A voiceover then said: “Fancy scoring at The Valley in May? Contact the sales team now to book the pitch for your team.”
The Advertising Standards Authority received a complaint that the ad was unsuitable for children who were likely to be able to see the video.
The football club said the target audience was 20- to 30-year-old men looking to hire The Valley in the close season.
The club said it used the risque advertising approach because it had an ageing fan base and needed to connect with a younger audience to “ensure the future commercial sustainability of the club”.
The club said it was not released on any media platforms targeting children and that partners included outlets such as The Lad Bible and FHM magazine.
However, it also admitted that nine season ticket holders had complained about a “small extract” of the clip that ran on micro-video service Vine, which attracted a total of 8m views.
The ASA said that the sexual content made it unsuitable for children and that running the ad on Charlton Athletic’s official YouTube channel meant that it was likely to be seen by young fans.
YouTube said the ad did not violate its community guidelines. The ASA said it did, however, break the UK advertising code.
“Because the ad had appeared in a place where children might see it, we concluded that the ad had been irresponsibly targeted,” it said. “The ad must not appear again in its current form on the Charlton Athletic Football Club YouTube channel or other untargeted media”.
