Hungry Jack’s ad featuring man being painfully beaten by debt collector is banned

A Hungry Jack’s radio ad featuring a man moaning in pain as he is beaten up by a debt collector has been banned by the advertising watchdog over its depiction of violence.

The ad, created by Clemenger BBDO, was to promote the $5 Hungry Jack’s Stunner Value Meal. The brand argued that the content of the ad was intended to be humorous.

According to the Advertising Standards Board report: “This radio advertisement for the Hungry Jack’s Stunner Value Meal features a man being threatened by another man because he owes someone $5. We can hear sounds as though he is being hit and the man doing the hitting says, “You borrow that kind of money, you gotta be prepared for the consequences”.

But Hungry Jack’s argued that the ad should be cleared because it was slapstick. It said: “The radio commercial promotes Hungry Jack’s ‘Stunner’ value meals by dramatising the value of $5. It depicts a dialogue between a male character (‘Sam’) and a secondary male character, followed by an explanatory monologue. The primary marketing message – the value of $5 has never been worth so much at Hungry Jack’s – is articulated in this monologue. In this context, the narrative is not intended to be understood literally. Rather, the narrative appropriates a familiar ‘debt collector’ trope as depicted in popular film and television in order to communicate this primary marketing message.