Monster autism advert attracts complaints

Finance | Celina Ribeiro | 17 Feb 2009

Action for Children’s new TV campaign featuring an autistic child has attracted complaints and calls for withdrawal from groups and individuals around the world.

The cartoon advertisement depicts the real-life story of a young boy called Dan who has autism. The advert depicts Dan inside a monster as he describes how Action for Children helped him manage his autism.

Nearly 2,300 people from around the world have joined a Facebook group titled ‘Let’s stop Action for Children demonising autistic children’ and the Advertising Standards Authority has received 60 complaints about the campaign, which it is considering.

Tracey Sands, a spokeswoman for the National Autistic Society (NAS), said that her organisation had received a number of complaints which it had passed on to Action for Children.

“In particular, people have written to the NAS expressing their concerns about the way the advert depicts autism with a monster cartoon. They fear that the advert could be interpreted as suggesting that autism is the fault of the individual and that behaviours associated with autism can and should be corrected,” she said.

“Better public understanding is crucial in order to end discrimination and help people with autism enjoy the same rights and freedoms as the rest of society.”

Senior members of the NAS have met with counterparts at Action for Children to discuss their concerns and Sands reported that the meetings had been “positive”.

Dan approved advert

Polly Neate, executive director of public affairs and communications for Action for Children, said that the concept and drawings had been approved by Dan, who had described his condition as a monster.

“These pictures depict how he saw himself and what he felt he needed help with before Action for Children helped Dan and his family for a number of years,” she said.

“The animation in the advert is a representation of Dan’s own individual feelings of anger and frustration, not of autism.

“We do not believe that the experiences and perceptions articulated by Dan in the advert present autism as the problem, though we are aware that unfortunately this is how it has been interpreted by some. Rather, they highlight the avoidable confusion and difficulties experienced by children and families when the support and professional help that they need, and are entitled to, are not forthcoming. It is aimed at reinforcing the positive effect that timely support does and can have,” she added.

The controversial advert ran until February 8 and is no longer on air.

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Sharon Fennell
19 Feb 2009

I created the Facebook group protesting this ad.

Polly Neate claims that the ads, "depict how he [Dan] saw himself and what he felt he needed help with" and that "some" have misinterpreted the ad. It's hard to know how we were supposed to know how else to interpret an ad showing a rampaging monster with a sad child trapped inside accompanied by a voice over saying, "My parents sought out help with my autism because it was becoming a pain in the bum."

2300 people on Facebook and 60 more on an online petition as well as some of the world's foremost authorities on autism have viewed and condemned the ad.

Most people who will have watched them on TV will not have the chance to hear Ms Neate's explaination of how they were meant to interpret the ad, and many will unfortunately now think that autism must be a monstrous condition that makes children aggressive and dangerous. They may see how the monster was defeated and think wrongly that autism is curable, or even just bad behaviour. The narrator says, "Thanks to the carers I was able to correct a lot of errors in my behaviour and become a better person." This very strongly states that the child himself was at fault and had to change.

The ad even ignores Action for Children's own image guidelines which require that they avoid gratuitous images and that they are particularly sensitive in the portrayal of disabled children which as they themselves say "may have a profound effect on their self-image." I have heard of many autistic children upset by the Dan ads when they were on air.

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