NSPCC Cartoon - Close Analysis

This is another example of a child abuse advert which uses the idea of having a cartoon representing the child in focus. This technique was designed to add comedy to the advert to get the audiences attention and also reach to children. However, as the advert develops, the seriousness of the issue raised becomes clear and the comical tone of the advert becomes more serious as the viewer realises that it is not meant to be funny as these are real life scenarios that happen on a day to day basis. At the end of the advert, the cartoon boy turns into a real boy and is left at the end of the stairs filmed from a high angle to show the weakness of the child and how vulnerable and helpless he actually is. The fact that his abuser is still at the top of the stairs and looking down at the child connotes that the has power over the child and the child is inferior to him. 

Taken from - http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2002/jun/06/advertising.society

A gut-wrenching NSPCC commercial showing a cartoon boy being violently attacked by his father has escaped a TV ban despite receiving 127 complaints.

The independent television commission has decided not to uphold complaints, including 12 from victims of child abuse, which claimed the ad was upsetting, shocking and had "overstepped the mark".

In its latest quarterly report on TV advertising complaints, the ITC described the ad, made by Saatchi & Saatchi, as "extremely hard hitting".

In the film, a cartoon character bounces back from his father's attacks. But when he is thrown down the stairs, the body of a real boy lies in his place. The endline reads: "Real children don't bounce back."

But the ITC agreed with the NSPCC's defence that the imagery was "an effective means of communicating the seriousness of the issue and moving people to take action if they were concerned about a child".

Five viewers said the ad suggested only men abuse children and several other viewers said that, while raising awareness of child abuse was important, they felt the film's treatment of the issue had overstepped the mark.

Although it acknowleged the ad was more hard-hitting than any of the NSPCC's previous campaigns, the ITC acknowledged the charity had "taken a great deal of care" to minimise distress in its film, which was only shown after the 9pm watershed.

The NSPCC and the ITC sympathised with viewers who found the ad upsetting - particularly those with personal experience of abuse - but felt that it was justified.