Well said!
From Spiked:
Rob Lyons
Wanted for crimes against free expression
The Advertising Standards Authorities’ censuring of a movie poster
exposes its elite disdain for the dumb masses.
The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has censured the makers
of an Angelina Jolie action movie, Wanted, because the posters
advertising the film `glamorised guns’. This willingness of our
moral guardians to clamp down on freedom of expression poses a
graver threat to the health of society than any imaginary Angelina-
inspired gun crime spree.
Wanted is a big-screen version of a comic-book story starring Jolie
and James McAvoy. She’s a kick-ass assassin, he’s a bored office
dweeb getting walked all over by everyone. But, as the poster
declares: `SIX WEEKS AGO, I WAS JUST LIKE YOU… AND THEN I MET HER…
AND MY WORLD WAS CHANGED FOREVER.’ It’s your regular `boy meets
girl, girl gives boy a gun and several million dollars, violence and
adventure ensue’ kinda movie.
Angelina Jolie in Wanted poster
The posters captured the film pretty well. `One poster showed the
profile of the actress Angelina Jolie’, notes the ASA. `She was
crouched with her elbow resting on her knee and was holding a gun
pointing upwards. In the background the actor James McAvoy held a
gun in each hand, pointing towards the reader.’ Another poster
showed a variety of images, including one of Jolie `laid across the
bonnet of a car on her back. She was facing the reader and holding a
gun, which pointed in the opposite direction.’
Yet for the ASA, these posters were simply too much. In its ruling
censuring the film’s promoters, the ASA states: `We acknowledged
most viewers would understand the posters reflected the content of
an action film. However, we considered, that because the ads
featured a glamorous actress, action poses, several images of or
related to guns and aspirational text, they could be seen to
glamorise the use of guns and violence. We concluded [the posters]
could be seen to condone violence by glorifying or glamorising the
use of guns.’
Now there’s certainly no doubt that Angelina Jolie is glamorous, and
that the posters and the movie appeal to the desire to be powerful
and to be attractive to hot women like her. One suspects this
combination is especially enticing to the kind of young men who
spend a lot of time in their bedrooms reading comic books and who
might just want to see Wanted. Also, as Adam Curtis pointed out in
his TV series The Century of the Self, the advertising industry was
heavily influenced by Sigmund Freud – and that is well illustrated
in the Wanted poster’s depiction of a sexy Hollywood actress with
a `loaded weapon’ in her hands.
What is repulsive, however, is the assumption, made by the ASA and
held by the kind of people who complain to such busybody
organisations, that we mere mortals cannot distinguish between
action-movie erotica and real life. Whatever makes people carry guns
and commit murder, it is highly unlikely to have anything to do with
what is on at the multiplex or with the poster on display at the bus
stop. British censors have gone from arguing (on the basis of no
evidence) that movies make us violent to claiming that posters for
movies might tip us over the edge. This empowers our moral
superiors, who of course are immune to such violent temptations, to
control imagery not only in the cinema but everywhere in the public
realm.
Worse, the ASA issued its completely unnecessary and censorial
judgement after receiving complaints from just 17 people – thus
facilitating what we at spiked have referred to as `the tyranny of
the minority’. The ASA judgement is entirely subjective. So its
scolding adjudication accepts that most people will understand
perfectly well that this is just a movie and isn’t meant to reflect
real life – and yet, rather than base its decisions on what the vast
majority of sensible people will think, the ASA had acted on a `just
in case’ principle because the posters could be seen to condone
violence.
This tyranny of the minority – or, in truth, tyranny in the name of
a tiny minority – has become common in recent years. In February
2007, House of Fraser pulled a promotional advert from its stores on
the grounds that one person thought it was racist. A year later,
London Underground banned posters for the theatrical comedy Fat
Christ before anyone even had a chance to complain. Many other
examples must never see the light of day, dismissed with pre-emptive
self-censorship by producers and promoters afraid of incurring the
wrath of the ASA, the Office of Communications (Ofcom), the British
Board of Film Classification (BBFC) or various other bodies set up
to determine for us what we should be allowed to see and hear.
The ASA ruling against Wanted will only reinforce this trend. Many
commentators and activists in Britain frequently criticise deeply
censorious countries such as China or Iran, where very small groups
of people determine what the mass of the population can read or
watch. Yet in Britain, too, measures are being put in place to allow
the sensitivities of infinitesimal minorities to determine what the
majority can glimpse in the public realm. We should say loud and
clear that such petty censoriousness is not Wanted here.
Rob Lyons is deputy editor of spiked.
“Whatever makes people carry guns and commit murder, it is highly
unlikely to have anything to do with what is on at the multiplex or
with the poster on display at the bus stop.”
Exactly! That’s just what the ASA and the self appointed moral
guardians who winge to them don’t understand.
Gun crime is a complex problem which encompesses all sorts of social
problems and issues and blaming adverts and films is far too
simplistic.
“What is repulsive, however, is the assumption, made by the ASA and
held by the kind of people who complain to such busybody
organisations, that we mere mortals cannot distinguish between
action-movie erotica and real life.”
Couldn’t have put it it better. Such an assumption is held also by
pressure groups like Mediawatch UK who think the public are too
stupid to distinguish between fantasy and reality and will copy what
they see on the screen.
