Protesting The Times: Westminster Zoo commercial

Post date: 2019-03-21 01:16:55

Yesterday I went to the cinema and saw a new advert for The Times newspaper. It portrays MPs in the House Of Commons as chaotic animals, then in come the lion and the unicorn and sort them out. The lion and the unicorn are heraldic symbols of the UK and figure on The Times' masthead. I read this advert as chockfull of fascistic dogwhistles and want to complain. Please give advice how to make an effective and public complaint.

A group of sheep were emphasized on one party's benches and a group of rats were shown disappearing from the other party's benches. I cannot fathom that an advertising agency would use such images without being fully aware of the antecedents. This ad is targeted at the fascistic side of Brexit, and coming from a Murdoch paper it is quite deliberate. Note how it also invokes the phony backwards-looking GB nationalism. Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel indeed.

It is SO DISTRESSING to see this imagery sneaking into western media, so cynically cloaked in plausible deniability. Please can you help me with
1/ making the argument as to why this advert is unacceptable and uses its imagery to fly under the radar
2/ finding the best places to make a complaint to.

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