The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has told DeadHappy to avoid causing “serious or widespread” offence after banning two life insurance ads the insurer placed depicting notorious serial killer Dr Harold Shipman which attracted 115 complaints.
The ads featured on Facebook and Instagram contained the wording “LIFE INSURANCE … Because you never know who your doctor might be”.
The Instagram advert contained a picture of Shipman, who is thought to have murdered up to 250 people during his time working as a GP in Hyde, Greater Manchester.
The ad attracted widespread condemnation across social media last month and caused one protection adviser to lead a social media campaign encouraging members of the public to report the ad to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the ASA.
DeadHappy is known for its controversial advertising approach and initially defended the ads, before issuing an apology after the outcry.
In doing so the life insurer pledged to rethink its present and future marketing strategies and it received a strong rebuke from Shepherds Friendly which underwrites the policies it sells.
The FCA also took action, issuing a ruling that effective from 31 January DeadHappy “must cease to communicate any further financial promotions that have not received prior approval” – meaning future adverts will need to be cleared by Shepherds Friendly.
Adverts withdrawn after one day
The ASA told Health & Protection the ads had attracted 50 complaints within a week of being shown, however providing its ruling, the regulator revealed it had since attracted 115 complaints, with complainants challenging whether the ads “irresponsibly caused serious and widespread offence and unjustified distress”.
The ASA noted that DeadHappy took the ads down at 8am on 24 January, barely 24 hours after going live, adding that it was “never their intention to offend” and that once it became clear that the ads were causing offence, they removed them.
The life insurer also confirmed it would not run the ads again and is reviewing processes in relation to the creation and approval of ads and would endeavour to make better informed decisions going forward.
Facebook and Instagram, both owned by Meta, acknowledged the complaints but made no further comment.
The ASA said marketing communications “must be prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society” and “must not contain anything likely to cause serious or widespread offence, or incorporate a shocking claim or image merely to attract attention”.
As the ads contained an image of serial murderer Shipman, estimated to have murdered between 215 and 260 of his patients, the ASA added it considered that the image of Shipman would be instantly recognisable to many people.
It also said the wording of the ads “trivialised” and “made light” of the murders committed by Shipman, such that they were likely to cause both “serious and widespread offence” to those who saw them.
The ASA added that it considered that any reference to the murderer in advertising material was likely to be “distressing”, particularly for those who had lost family members or friends at Shipman’s hands and that, in the context of an ad promoting life insurance, the distress caused was “unjustified”.
Consequently, it concluded that the ads were not prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society and did not comply with rules on issues of harm and offence. But it welcomed DeadHappy’s assurance that they would not be repeated.
The ASA ruled that the ads must not appear again and told DeadHappy to ensure it avoided causing serious or widespread offence, or unjustified distress.
‘Thousands of people affected’
Kathryn Knowles, co-managing director at Cura Financial Services, who took to social media to campaign for the public to complain to the ASA and the FCA, called the ruling “very positive”.
“There’s putting shock to try and get people’s attention and then there’s using a mass murderer,” Knowles told Health & Protection.
“It’s worrying that people would think this was an acceptable thing to do. There is obviously the concern about how the industry it looks but the key thing for me straight away was ‘my God, the victims and their families’.
“Why did nobody ask should we actually be doing this? There are hundreds of people that Harold Shipman killed, there are so many families that will still be affected by what he did.”
Knowles added that the situation had made her “incredibly sad” that an organisation would use Shipman’s image in this way, saying she felt it was “completely acceptable”.
“There was no contemplation for not only the families of the victims but also anyone who was associated with him – work colleagues and so on,” she continued.
“There are so many implications for hundreds of people, if not thousands of people, who have been affected by his actions.
“There’s wanting to grow and make a profit but there is a point where you say, ‘do you know what? actually no, there is a limit. There are certain lines we don’t cross.'”
Health & Protection approached both DeadHappy and Shepherds Friendly for comment.
A spokesperson at Shepherds Friendly said: “Following the FCA’s restriction on DeadHappy’s activities, we are ensuring that those requirements are complied with. In addition, we have given our feedback to DeadHappy regarding our expectations of their conduct in the future.”