From: "Charles Jacoby", [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Police chief in gang murder inquiry says book advert
glamorises violence
By Jason Bennetto, Crime Correspondent
Independent, 11 September 2000
A Police commander investigating a spate of gang murders
has lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards
Authority about a publicity campaign for Penguin books,
which he says glamorises gun violence.
The nationwide campaign, which included posters and press
advertisements, featured two American teenagers.
One has an automatic pistol that he is casually slipping
inside his jacket while the other looks on. The photograph,
entitled "Rat and Mike with a gun", was of two street
youths in Seattle and is accompanied by the slogan
"Be Here".
The campaign has been attacked by a leading Scotland
Yard detective, who said it was irresponsible and that it
was helping to spread the "American gangster ethos" and
promote the idea of guns as "fashion accessories".
Commander Mike Fuller, the head of Operation Trident,
the 160-strong squad set up to investigate black-on-black
Yardie-influenced shootings in London, yesterday wrote to
the ASA to complain about the use of the gun image.
In his letter Mr Fuller said: "I find the advert both
disturbing and irresponsible ... Portraying the use of
guns as a way to settle disputes and using them as fashion
accessories only serves to attach a glamorous and
acceptable image in the minds of young people."
He was particularly scathing about the billboard display
of the poster in Hackney, north-east London, where several
of the gun-related murders have taken place. He said: "This
is distasteful and offensive, not only to the victims and
their relatives but also the communities who are already
fearful of the callous gunmen who carry out these shootings."
Since 1999 there have been 29 drug-related murders in the
capital, six this year.
The advertising campaign, which has now ended, has prompted
a number of complaints, and the poster in Hackney was
covered over in July.
A spokesman for Penguin books said: "[Penguin] has not
selected these images gratuitously ... The pictures make an
undeniable claim: books remain the only true conduit to
different worlds, different cultures, different emotional
experiences."
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