Mom rips into wolf ad

Images of the fast-growing teeth and fingernails of werewolves, often featured in horror movies, were recently used in an advertisement shown on the children's channel, Disney XD.

But the advert has left some children screaming in fear, resulting in MultiChoice being slapped with a R5000 fine.

In a ruling last week, the Broadcasting Complaints Commission said that the advertisement for children's fantasy drama series Wolfblood was "too scary" for younger viewers and should have had an over-13 age restriction.

Johannesburg mother Tracy le Roux said that her sons, aged five and seven, began screaming when they saw the "shocking" ad on the child-friendly channel in December.

"Fleeting scenes can be seen of teeth in a human mouth and fingernails on a human hand growing longer. The growing teeth conjured up memories of the well-known Dracula films," the 37-year-old mother said.

The British programme is about two teens who discover they are part human and part wolf and have heightened speed, strength and senses.

Le Roux said the images shown in the short advert were "very disturbing to children".

The commission agreed.

"Our impression of the promo is that the broadcaster is busy promoting a horror movie," commission chairman Kobus van Rooyen said, adding that this was how the average reasonable viewer was likely to interpret it.

And, because it was not accompanied by a warning, parents and caregivers did not have the option of preventing their children from seeing it, the commission said.

MultiChoice conceded that children under seven might have been disturbed by the ad and apologised, but defended it by saying that the images appeared only briefly and the ad was appropriate for its audience.

"Family is key to the series," the pay-TV broadcaster said.

But the commission held that: "The film might be an innocent youth fantasy drama, but this is not the message that the promo conveys."

After receiving the complaint, MultiChoice said it would ensure that the programme and any promotions relating to it would be broadcast with an age restriction and "appropriate warnings".

Despite this, the commission held that, because the rights of children, their parents and caregivers had been "violated" by the advert, a reprimand was not sufficient and a fine was justified.

Yesterday Le Roux said that, though she was happy with the ruling, she remained a "little nervous" about her children watching the channel and constantly had to "keep an eye out" to monitor what was being shown.