A full-page newspaper ad that portrayed British Prime Minister Tony Blair with a Hitler-style barcode moustache was not offensive, according to the UK's ad watchdog.
The ad for the
No2ID nonpartisan anti-ID card lobby group had a close-up photo of Blair with a barcode on his upper lip and text underneath it saying: "ID cards have worked well in Europe before." The Advertising
Standards Authority (ASA) received complaints about it.
In addition, the photograph of Blair had been retouched to make it look like a 1930s portrait, and the layout was designed to
echo the Nazi era. No2ID argues that the intention was to encourage discussion of the civil-liberties implications of national ID cards. While it may have been insulting to Blair, it was not
offensive.
The ASA agreed, saying: "Although the ad may have been distasteful to some, it was unlikely to be seen as making a serious comparison between Tony Blair and Hitler, but
instead as highlighting a lobbying group's opinion that ID cards should not be introduced because of the threat to civil liberty they posed."
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