Belgium’s Jury of Ethical Advertising, JEP, has already received about 300 complaints about an advertisement by the Bicky Burger brand on social networks.
“Compared to other campaigns, this is an enormous number,” JEP Chairman Piet Moens said on Wednesday.
The offending advert shows a man beating a woman for bringing him a false Bicky Burger. On Tuesday, it sparked an avalanche of indignant reactions on social media, which the Jury said it fully understood.
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“Violence in advertisement is inadmissible,” the JEP said. “That is stated in the International Code of Commerce.”
The Jury expects even more complaints, but says the number received so far is already huge, surpassing by far the some 200 spawned by a publicity campaign on the RichMeetBeautiful.be Internet site in September 2017.
The JEP is now conducting an investigation into the originator of the Bicky Burger advertising campaign. If it is located abroad, it will be up to the publicity monitoring organ of the host country to handle the complaints. If the advert originated in Belgium, the JEP will process them.
The offending ad is no longer visible on Bicky Burger’s social media pages.
The Brussels Times
