Burger chain grilled for ‘upsetting’ clown flasher ad

Grill’d slammed for “extremely inappropriate ad” which shows an animated clown ‘flashing’ children in a laneway.

A Grill’d burger advertisement featuring an animated clown-like character seemingly ‘flashing’ children in a laneway has been described as “extremely inappropriate” and “deeply upsetting” in complaints to the Australian advertising watchdog.

The ad, which will be changed after a finding by the Ad Standards Community Panel that it breached two sections of the Australian Association of National Advertiser (AANA) code of conduct, showed the cartoon clown menacingly opening his trench coat in front of a group of children in an alleyway to reveal toys in the lining.

A burger superhero appears and a fast food battle ensues with the burger throwing wooden spikes at the clown and the clown pulling a knife from his shoe and trying to slice the aggressive burger in half. The clown ends up pinned to a wall with his pants falling down.

Viewers complained about the “offensive” sinister-looking clown ad.

Complaints from upset viewers to Ad Standards included comments such as “the ad is suggestive of sexual promiscuity and violence towards children and is not an appropriate way to advertise a family eatery,” “this ad portrayed flashing and also encourages children to possess and use knives and violence against each other, totally inappropriate,” and “this is offensive and upsetting (and) it also downplays the seriousness of crimes of exposure/flashing.”

The Ad Standards Community Panel investigation found the suggestion of sexual violence in the ad in the part were the clown ‘flashes’ in the laneway was “extremely inappropriate in an advertisement for burgers.”

The Community Panel also found the ad failed to treat sex, sexuality and nudity with sensitivity to the relevant audience.

In a submission to Ad Standards, Grill’d defended the commercial claiming the cartoon nature of the violence was similar to superhero programs.

Grill’d has agreed to modify the ad.