A TV campaign featuring Vinnie Jones teaching people how to resuscitate someone, set to the rhythm of the Bee Gees' Stayin' Alive, has been cleared by the advertising watchdog despite complaints it featured a medically unsafe technique
The Advertising Standards Authority received 20 complaints that the ad, in which Jones teaches the correct timing of the technique by performing CPR* to the song, is harmful and likely to encourage unsafe behaviour as he is shown performing it incorrectly.
That’s Cardiopulmonary resuscitation – not the Civil Procedure Rules!!
In response to the ASA, the BHF said the UK has appalling survival rates of cardiac arrests that occur outside hospitals and the campaign had raised awareness of life-saving techniques, with 15 reported instances of people applying lessons from the ad with a positive outcome.
So why are the UK’s statistics so poor? Are we just untrained at life-saving, not caring enough or too scared of getting sued for botched resuscitation attempts? Maybe a bit of all three?
The ASA said the ad was clearly aimed at those with brief or opportunistic training and did not believe it would discourage those with a working knowledge of mouth-to-mouth.
"Because the ad showed correct techniques for hands-only CPR, we concluded the ad was not harmful and did not encourage unsafe behaviour," said the ASA.
So, to the 20 supposed do-gooders who, for the sake of pedantry, complained about a national ad which could (and has) saved lives, I hope you enjoyed this fruitless exercise.
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