The BBC has gone into damage control after a banned ad campaign promoting the Six Nations Rugby tournament that was branded as too anti-English somehow resurfaced online.
For those who don’t know, the Six Nations is annual rugby tournament played between England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France and Italy.
The TVC features fans being asked which team they most wanted to beat. Perhaps unsurprisingly, fans from Scotland, Wales and Ireland all ganged up on England. It ends with the tag: “It’s not about who you want to win, but who you want to lose.”
The ad is actually from 2012 but was deemed too anti-English and was promptly shelved. BBC bosses assumed it had been consigned to the dustbin and marked “never to be shown again”. Check out the offending spot below:
The BBC said it was baffled how the controversial ad had made it viral comeback.
A spokeswoman said: “This trailer was part of our promotion for the Six nations in 2012.
“The creative concept was around fans being united in rivalry.
“We featured real fans from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland in the trail all talking about who they wanted to beat.
“The non-English fans interviewed for the trail all wanted to beat England which made the first cut of the trail slightly unbalanced.
“We therefore changed the balance of the fans in the next edit to make the trail more representative,” the spokeswoman said.
