A company promoting a live zombie experience has pledged to create a less “distasteful” poster ad, after the advertising watchdog banned its gruesome London Underground campaign.
The poster ad for The Generation of Z Apocalypse, an event where “soldiers” help the audience to survive a zombie experience, used an image of zombie head with sunken eyes and blood stained teeth.
The Advertising Standards Authority received complaints that the poster ads were unsuitable to run in the London Underground as they could be seen by children.
The company behind the event, The Generation of Z Ltd, said the ads were meant to convey the adult theme of the show.
The company agreed that the zombie image could be viewed as distasteful and said that it had hired a new ad agency to “rebrand the show so that it appealed to a wider audience”.
Exterion, the advertising company that places ads on the tube, said they had not received any complaints about the campaign.
The ASA said the poster was “highly-stylised” but could still cause distress to younger children.
“While we considered that the sinister image of the zombie would not cause distress to older children and adults, it could distress younger children,” said the ASA. “Therefore, we considered that the poster was unsuitable for display in an untargeted medium where it was likely to be seen by young children.”
The ASA said running the ad on the London Underground was in breach of the UK advertising code and could not appear again.
