The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned the Post Office from inviting children to write to Father Christmas, on the grounds that it is misleading the youngsters.
The ruling this week followed a complaint by Cape Town journalist Andrew October about a Post Office television commercial. The commercial gives children an address at which they can write to Santa Claus with their Christmas present requests.
October said that unless the Post Office intends to give the children the gifts they were asking for, the commercial should be canned.
He said it encourages ”a falsehood that could break the fragile spirits of the already disillusioned youth of South Africa”.
The advertising agency, Lobedu Leo Burnett, responded on behalf of the Post Office that the commercial is harmless and that living in a ”fantasy world” is part of growing up.
It said that writing to Father Christmas is a tradition for Christian children, and that this is a practice frequently supported by parents.
It also said that in households where parents do not believe in this practice, children are brought up in the knowledge that Father Christmas is not a reality and is therefore unlikely to respond to the commercial.
The ASA’s directorate — its primary decision-making body — ruled that the advert is in breach of a clause in the Code of Advertising Practice that says advertisements should not exploit the ”natural credulity” of children.
”The directorate was of the opinion that the commercial in question exploits in children the belief, or inclination to believe, in Santa Claus.
”It creates the impression, in the mind of the credulous child, that by writing to the given address s/he will be writing to Santa Claus, who, according to the Santa Claus myth, will then bring him/her the requested presents.
”The directorate noted in addition, that the Santa Claus myth includes the legend that children who do not get presents from Santa Claus have been naughty during the year.
”The directorate was of the opinion that it could conceivably be extremely upsetting for a child who does not receive the requested presents to believe that s/he has been too naughty during the past year.
”Lastly, the directorate noted that, as the letters to Santa Claus have to be stamped, the respondent is profiting from the natural credulity of children in this regard.” — Sapa