Poundland follows controversial Christmas naughty elf campaign with some risqué Easter ads
Poundland got into hot water last month with the Advertising Standards Authority for its naughty elf Christmas adverts, which were branded offensive and unsuitable to be seen by children.
But that hasn’t dampened the discount retailer’s spirit. In fact, it has recently kicked off a new campaign for Easter, featuring a fluffy rabbit and chick.
Read more: Poundland just had its best Christmas ever
Introducing Bunny and his side Chick! They’re hopping on board with us for Easter… Watch this space to see what they get up to. pic.twitter.com/qlRNPSc0jZ— Poundland (@Poundland) March 23, 2018
It all started innocently enough, but has since escalated…
Spring in his step, Bunny goes birdwatching. pic.twitter.com/yBSJsICruw— Poundland (@Poundland) March 24, 2018
I’ve got a way to make you hot and cross, Bunny. pic.twitter.com/qxVHRlRhun— Poundland (@Poundland) March 25, 2018
Today’s tongue-in-cheek update had the rabbit reading the news to its fluffy companion “side-chick”, saying Poundland had racked up the headlines again.
“I’m afraid side-chick, some of the papers say it’s Bad Hare Day.” pic.twitter.com/R3ql3kRKpY— Poundland (@Poundland) March 26, 2018
The rather risqué original ad campaign by Poundland quickly took off on Twitter over the festive period, and Poundland said its campaign was based on humour and double entendres, and not meant to offend anyone.
But two complaints were upheld by the regulator.
The ASA said it understood the campaign was based on a toy elf resembling the Christmas tradition known as “Elf on the Shelf”, with it depicted in various scenarios behaving in a mischievous manner.
However, it said Poundland’s Facebook and Twitter pages were “not age-gated and could therefore be seen by anyone”.
It concluded the ads, depicting the toy figures in a sexualised manner, were irresponsible and likely to cause serious or widespread offence, so the advert could not appear again in its current form.
Poundland’s response said at least it was “only 84 people who had a sense of humour failure” compared to the tens of thousands who got the joke and liked the posts online.
Read more: Poundland shrugs off “sense of humour failure” over naughty elf ad bans