Offensive Oscar ad banned

ATTEMPTING to cash in on Oscar's Pistorius's shooting of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp has landed an advertising agency in hot water.

The Advertising Standards Authority ordered Toast Media to immediately remove a newspaper advert that purported to portray Pistorius's mental state. It was also banned from publishing the advert ever again.

The offensive advert was published on May 27, a day after Pistorius, who is on trial for the murder of former Port Elizabeth model Steenkamp in the Pretoria High Court, started psychiatric evaluation at Pretoria's Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital.

The newspaper advert – with the headline "Oscar's psychiatric evaluation" – contained a Rorschach inkblot, showing the images of two handguns and a broken heart in the inkblot, followed by the words "... for alternative creative results" and the agency's contact details.

The test is used to determine personality traits and emotional function by interpreting 10 inkblots.

Upset by the advert, Cape Town reader David Beelders lodged a complaint with the authority, saying it "presents a twisted mental image of Oscar Pistorius and pre-empts what the psychiatric evaluation will reveal".

Toast Media defended the advert, saying it was not created to offend or depict vulgar views, but the agency wanted to use the "imminent results" of Pistorius's evaluation as a platform. - Shenaaz Jamal