OTTAWA – A trailer for a horror movie that aired during a CFL game did not breach any broadcast codes, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) has determined.
The CBSC investigated a 30-second spot promoting the theatrical release of the movie Annabelle: Creation that aired on TSN on August 10, 2017 during a Canadian Football League (CFL) game. The ad aired at approximately 9:30 PM ET which was 7:30 PM in the Mountain time zone.
The ad for the film contained images of a creepy-looking doll, a young girl’s wheelchair being pushed by an unseen figure, objects flying around a room, and a nun being thrown into a wall by an unseen force, accompanied by the movie’s tagline “Evil finds a new home”.
A viewer in the Mountain time zone complained that the ad was not appropriate for broadcast during family programming, and that the theme of a possessed doll was particularly horrific to young girls. TSN responded that it regretted that the viewer’s family had been upset by the ad, but indicated that it had been approved for broadcast by the Telecaster Services Division of ThinkTV.
The CBSC’s English-Language Panel examined the complaint under Article 3.3 of the CAB Violence Code which states advertisements containing scenes of violence intended for adult audiences shall not be aired before 9:00 PM. In its decision, the Panel agreed that the ad was intense and frightening, but found that it did not contain the level of gore or graphic-ness that would make it intended exclusively for adults. The fact that the commercial had been pre-approved by Telecaster did not influence the CBSC’s decision because that organization has not been recognized as having regulatory authority over advertising offered on broadcaster services.
