Spotify’s spooky haunted doll ad too creepy for kids, British watchdog rules

Gizmodo:

The UK’s advertising watchdog chastised Spotify today for releasing an “unduly distressing” ad that, it argues, improperly targeted children. The ad shows young people listening to Camila Cabello’s song “Havana,” which in turn wakes up some scary looking dolls that go on to terrorize them.

“The fact the ad was set inside the home, including a bedtime setting, and featured a doll, meant it was particularly likely to cause distress to children who saw it,” the ASA wrote in its ruling. “We did not consider that the context of the ad justified the distress.”

Definitely an odd way to promote Spotify.