‘The Mummy’ Poster Ads Banned From London Underground After ASA Ruling

The U.K. Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that outdoor poster ads for “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy” breached its code by presenting an image that gave “a realistic impression of a dead child,” while clearing companion TV and streaming spots for the same campaign.

The ASA investigated four issues stemming from several complaints about ads for the Warner Bros Entertainment U.K. Ltd. cinema release, seen in April this year. The regulator upheld one complaint and rejected the other three in a ruling published Aug. 5.

“The ASA received 30 complaints, many of whom believed the ads were distressing for children and adults,” the ASA said.

Posters on the London Underground and at outdoor sites showed a close-up of a mummified female figure with grey, ashen skin, cracked lips and one eye swollen shut, wrapped in material resembling a shroud and inscribed with hieroglyphic-style symbols.

The ASA said the figure’s features gave “a realistic impression of a dead child” and that the material wrapped around her added to that impression. Because the posters ran in untargeted locations, including on the London Underground and at a site visible from a children’s nursery, the regulator concluded the imagery was likely to distress young children who saw it. It ruled the posters unsuitable for outdoor display in that form, finding them in breach of CAP Code rules 1.3 and 4.2.

Warner Bros. had argued the poster’s neutral expression, open eye and absence of a sarcophagus or restraints were deliberate choices meant to reduce distress, and noted the studio’s outdoor buying policy of keeping horror titles at least 100 metres from schools – a standard that does not extend to nurseries.

The ASA ordered that the poster ads “must not appear in the form complained of” and directed Warner Bros. to keep future marketing likely to frighten young children away from places where they would see it.

The ruling cited BCAP Code rules 1.2, 4.1, 4.10, 5.1 and 32.3, and CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 1.3, 4.1 and 4.2.

The ASA rejected a separate complaint that the posters trivialized child loss or ongoing global conflicts, finding that text identifying the image as promotion for a film provided sufficient context, even if some viewers found it distasteful.

Variety has reached out to Warner Bros. Discovery for comment.

The campaign also included a TV ad and a matching Prime Video ad depicting a family receiving a call about a daughter who had gone missing eight years earlier, with the father questioning what she was doing in a 3000-year-old sarcophagus. On-screen text read, “Some Things Are Meant to Stay Buried.” Both ran with a post-7:30 p.m. scheduling restriction cleared by Clearcast.

The ASA found the TV and streaming ads were unlikely to cause serious distress and that their scheduling restrictions were sufficient to limit exposure to young children, rejecting complaints that they should have been kept off air later or targeted more precisely on Prime Video. It also noted Clearcast’s data showing an average children’s index of 31 across the TV placements – well below the industry baseline of 100 that represents typical child viewership, indicating the actual child audience was low. No further action was required for the TV and streaming ads.

“Lee Cronin’s The Mummy” released in the U.K. on April 17 and grossed $2.9 million.