The Consumer Agency has officially banned an Apple products retailer from using an advertisement featuring the animated work of Hugleikur Dagsson, as they take issue with the message the ad conveys.
In the ad in question, which you can see below, three different children open their Christmas presents. The first two children, at first delighted to get a new phone from an unnamed retailer, are soon subject to a violent explosion from the phones in question. The third child, however, is delighted to receive a new iPhone, adding, “Thanks mom and dad, for loving me.”
To this ad, the Consumer Agency took great exception. Hugleikur himself publicly posted the letter that the Consumer Agency sent to Macland, the Apple retailer who ran the ad.
In the letter, the Consumer Agency says they believe the ad is implying that any phone that is not an iPhone will explode in a child’s hand. Further, because the third child thanks his parents for loving him, the Consumer Agency also believes this implies the parents of the other two children knowingly gave their children phones that they knew would explode.
“It is the opinion of the Consumer Agency that Macland’s advertisement has the potential to send the message to children that phones other than iPhones could explode, with the consequence that their heads will be stripped to their skulls,” the letter reads in part. “And that parents that give other phones than iPhones are aware of these consequences.”
The Consumer Agency has therefore ordered Macland to remove the advertisement from their social media accounts within the next four weeks, or begin to receive daily fines.
In the event that the above video has been removed from YouTube, here is the ad in its entirety:
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