PRESS WARNED OVER HEROIN BABY ADVERT

NEWSPAPERS are being cautioned against using an advertisement from the
children's charity Barnardo's that appears to show a ten-month-old
baby injecting heroin.

The Committee on Advertising Practice, the advertising industry's
watchdog, is writing to newspaper editors to advise them that the
image will break the body's code of conduct in respect to taste and
decency.

Barnardo's defended the advertisement yesterday by claiming that it
did not find the picture shocking. It said that the photograph had
been digitally altered to give the impression that the baby was
holding a needle and using a tourniquet.

"We don't see it as shocking," said a spokesman for the charity. "We
see it as challenging the perceptions the public has of us as people
who run orphanages."

Complaints have already been lodged with the Advertising Standards
Authority about previous adverts in the charity's awareness campaign.
The latest advertisement is intended to be printed in newspapers on
Saturday.

Previous adverts in the campaign have featured children aged about
five in various adult situations. One was pictured clutching a bottle
of whisky. Another was seen apparently preparing to commit suicide.

Complaints against those adverts were rejected by the Standards
authority, because they were about fears that children might imitate
the actions in the adverts. The spokesman said yesterday: "This one is
in a different league and will provoke complaints".

Martin Smith, the deputy chairman of Bartle Bogle Hegarty, which
created the advert, defended its imagery.

He said: "Barnardo's have to deal with shocking things every day and I
don't believe the rest of us who don't have the right to insulate
ourselves from it.

"In keeping with campaigns like those for road safety it is legitimate
to use shocking images to try to stop shocking things happening."