A Spotify commercial featured the Lily Allen song ‘Fuck You’ has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority.
One complaint was made by a Spotify user, who said that the commercial had “caused offence”, before the regulator investigated the matter and decided to remove it.
Spotify responded by saying that the song was not intended to court controversy, and that there was a difference between the deliberate use of the language and the context in which it was used in the commercial. They also said that any user under the age of 18 must have consent from a parent or guardian to access it, and that those under the age of 13 are prohibited from using the streaming service altogether, though the ruling still stands.
Speaking of the banning, the ASA said: “While we considered Spotify users would understand the use of ‘Fuck You’ to be the title of a song, we considered recipients of e-mails from a general online music service would not expect them to include swearing. We considered the use of “Fuck” was likely to cause serious offence to some recipients of such e-mails and therefore concluded that the ad breached the Code.”
Photo: Getty Images
