Posters for a brand new horror film, created by an Irish director, have been banned in London.
The posters have been banned from appearing anywhere that children may be able to see them due the frightening images displayed.
The UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received 30 complaints about the posters for Lee Cronin's The Mummy.
The ads for the film included a poster on the London Underground and on an outdoor billboard which showed a close-up image of a mummified female with one eye swollen shut, and covered in brown material.
The TV and live-streaming service ads featured brief scenes of a body being removed from a sarcophagus and a visibly distressed woman as a grey, long-nailed hand brushed her cheek. The ad concluded with the mother saying, "I just want my daughter back."
According to RTE, the ad was cleared with Clearcast with a post 7.30pm scheduling restriction. Many of the complaints considered the ads disturbing for children and adults.
CREDIT: @Red Scream Films Studio
Warner Bros said according to RTE that the ads were not designed to create fear or distress anyone and that they had been prepared with "due responsibility to consumers and society."
Warner Bros said, according to RTE, that the trailer had been crafted to imply its horror themes rather than depict them explicitly. It said the trailer contained no jump scares, violence, gore, or graphic imagery.
After many complaints, ASA said that the appearance of the female on the poster gave a realistic impression of a dead child. The ASA said via RTE that "because the figure had recognisable human features, we considered that viewers were likely to understand it as a realistic depiction of a dead child. We acknowledged that Warner Bros said that the ads were not placed within 100 metres of any schools. However, we understood that the ad was visible from a children's nursery."
"In any case, we considered the image was likely to distress young children and that it was unsuitable for display where it was likely to be seen by them. We therefore concluded that the ads were unsuitable for outdoor display and therefore breached the code," they continued.
