The cinema ad was designed to warn about the dangers of purchasing prescription-only medicines over the internet.
It showed a man in a kitchen swallowing a tablet from a packet. Shortly afterwards he reached into his mouth and pulled out a tail before gagging as a whole rat comes out of his mouth. It ended with the voiceover: ‘Rat poison. Just one of the dangerous ingredients that may be found in fake medicines purchased from illegal websites.'
The ASA ruled that because the ad was intended to raise awareness of a serious issue and was designed to be hard-hitting, and was also restricted to films restricted for people over 15, it did not cause fear and distress or widespread distress.
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