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'Retard' Hoffman mobile ad is offensive, says watchdog
'It was meant to be funny', says advertiser...

By Jo Best

Published: Thursday 25 March 2004

The mobile industry has always been happy to push the boundaries with its adverting – think Nokia's N-Gage campaign. Sometimes, though, the industry goes too far – like branding Dustin Hoffman's character in Rainman a 'retard' in an ad.

That's just what mobile logo and screensaver seller, Xmob, did in some adverts placed in footie fanzine FourFourTwo and, unsurprisingly, both the National Autistic Society and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) slammed the ads.

The ad, which featured Hoffman with the word 'retard' over the actor, has now been pulled by the company. The NAS complained about the depiction of those with autism, saying it would reinforce the negative attitudes towards people with autism and the ASA agreed.

Onetoo, a division of Xmob, said that the advertising campaign was based on a popular skateboarding T-shirt and said it was meant to be funny rather than offensive. However, both the advertisers and the publishers of the magazine agreed not to use the image again.

The ASA welcomed the decision.