Finder’s ‘uninterested dad’ commercial pinged by Ad Standards

An ad for comparison service Finder.com.au has been pulled over health and safety concerns.

The radio ad portrayed a fictional conversation in which a son is trying to tell his father he needs an ambulance, but the parent is too distracted by “a home loan thing on Finder.com.au” because “the rate’s just dropped”. Throughout the conversation, the dad remains unaware, or uninterested, that he is late to collect his son and that his son is in peril.

Ad Standards – Australia’s enforcer of advertising self-regulation, which aims to “give voice to community concerns about the content of ads and promote responsible advertising” – investigated the ad, primarily focusing on health and safety concerns.

Section 2.6 of the advertising industry Code of Ethics stipulates that ads “must not depict content that would encourage or condone unhealthy or unsafe behaviour” in line with prevailing community standards.

Finder

Finder.com.au denied the ad breached the Code, contending it was made “utilising light-hearted humour to highlight the importance of the time criticality and importance of reviewing a customer’s home loan product and finding a better deal”. It said this humour was consistent with its overall brand voice, “one that’s friendly, self-aware and a little outrageous”.

“Finder respectfully submits that no reasonable listener would consider this to be in any way Finder encouraging or condoning unhealthy or unsafe behaviour. Finder submits that even if, as is the case with the complainant, some in the community may have drawn a link between the advertisement and it being condoning or encouraging unhealthy or unsafe behaviour, the material depicted does not expressly ask parents to neglect their children’s physical and mental wellbeing while reviewing their home loan,” it added in its response.

A minority of the Panel considered that the ad could breach Section 2.1 of the Code in terms of harmful gender stereotypes and the idea that “men are not natural caregivers”. The majority of the Panel, however, considered the father’s behaviour to be unusual, and believed the ad portrayed an individual’s actions, rather than those of an entire gender.

When it came to health and safety though, the majority of the Panel agreed that “the father’s behaviour strongly suggested parental neglect and child endangerment”.

“The Panel considered that most members of the community would consider it inappropriate to use parental neglect to promote a comparison service. The Panel considered that the advertisement did contain material contrary to Prevailing Community Standards on health and safety,” the Panel concluded.

In response, Finder.com.au confirmed it had discontinued the ad.