A TV commercial for the telecommunications company Etisalat has been banned for promoting ‘violence against children’ by Egypt’s Consumer Protection Authority (CPA).
In the advert, a man is seen on his death bed, surrounded by his grieving family. The man calls over his son for a final goodbye and the young man starts reminiscing about a time when he was on the roof with his dad and their pigeons. “Do you remember that I put a SIM-card in your pocket? Where is it?” the son asks. The man then slaps his son in the face.
The advert serves Etisalat’s latest campaign that promotes the reuse of old SIM-cards.
The CPA released a statement on Sunday in which Chairperson Atef Yaqoub was quoted as saying the commercial “violates personal dignity and teaches parents to beat their children”. Yaqoub adds that the CPA received ‘many’ complaints about the ad.
The commercial in question was released in August 2014 and has been airing for well over a year, but a spokesperson for Etisalat Egypt told Egyptian Streets that this was the first time the company had received a formal CPA complaint about it. The spokesperson figured the commercial must have attracted more attention after it had been broadcast on prime time TV.
Etisalat has been informed of the ban and has subsequently notified satellite channels to stop airing the advert.
Last June, a TV commercial for Fox Chips was banned by the CPA over similar concerns of promoting violence against children. In the ad, a teenager tells his father that he can see the future when eating Fox Chips. The father then slaps the boy on the face, and afterwards asks him whether he had foreseen that.
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