It - Chapter Two advertising scares children: Spotify justifies itself

    It - Chapter Two advertising scares children: Spotify justifies itself

    Frightening even for adults, the advertising of the film It - Chapter two characterized by the voice and laughter of the most famous clown of the most famous horror of cinema, it was played in August during the advertising inserts of the music streaming platform Spotify. The problem arose when the commercial was played during a playlist of lullabies dedicated to children, despite this content having been cataloged as not suitable for children.



    The ASA - Advertising Standards Authority - immediately stated that Warner Bros should have taken steps to prevent similar incidents from happening.

    Meanwhile Spotify declined to answer the BBC's questions regarding the incident, but UK advertising managers said the platform did not think the playlist in question was intended for children.

    It - Chapter Two advertising scares children: Spotify justifies itself

    Chris Cooke, managing director of CMU Insight, said:

    An increasingly used streaming platform such as Spotify, must get used to facing challenges like these every day. It is certainly reasonable to think that ad technology should keep unsuitable ads away from playlists aimed at children. That said, they are already working on launching a specific section for children for use by premuim users. The next step will be to make this mode available also to users who use the free service or the direct recipients of the advertisements.

    The playlist in question was titled "Classical Lullabies" and was made available by Spotify itself. Many titles included phrases such as: Children's Music, For Children English and Nursery Tunes which is why the ASA deemed the collection to be intended for children, despite Spotify's previous denial.



    Warner Bros again stated that the target audience for the advertisement containing Pennywise's voice was between 18 and 44 years old but as this did not prevent children from hearing it was declared unsuitable.


    The ASA does not have the power to sanction, but will require offenders to provide future advertising material in preview to be checked before use.

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