BBC- Home Office 'Go home' adverts banned
ITV - 'Go home' vans deemed to be inoffensive
The truth is the Advertising Standards Authority said the advert could not re-appear in its current for because ‘106 arrests last week in your area’ was misleading and could be substantiated, while the small print was not legible on a moving vehicle"
However it found that :-
the phrase “go home” in particular, were likely to be distasteful to some in the context of an ad addressed to illegal immigrants, irrespective of the overall message conveyed, and we recognised that wording less likely to produce that response, such as “return home” could have been used.
‘However, we concluded that the poster was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence or distress.’
It also concluded that the poster was unlikely to incite or exacerbate racial hatred and tensions in multicultural communities, and that it was ‘not irresponsible and did not contain anything which was likely to condone or encourage violence or anti-social behaviour’.
The Home Office said :-
Responding to the ruling, a Home Office spokeswoman said: ‘We are pleased the ASA have concluded that our pilot was neither offensive nor irresponsible. We have always been clear that this campaign was about encouraging illegal immigrants to leave the country voluntarily and was not targeted at particular racial or ethnic groups.
‘In respect of the ASA’s other findings, we can confirm that the poster will not be used again in its current format.’
More bias from the BBC