Grim advert of suicide sent off-air

A harrowing three-minute film depicting a struggling pregnant woman who ended up taking her own life has been ordered off-air.

The video was part of a campaign by Mothers Matter to raise awareness about postnatal depression and lobby the Government to provide more support to new parents.

The film, created by Moonshine Films in partnership with Mothers Matter, ends with the words “We approached the Government for help. They turned us away.”

While it drew strong reactions from the public and politicians at the time, others including the Mental Health Foundation were concerned about it potentially triggering people struggling with mental health, and a lack of warnings in some screenings.

The ASA upheld all 13 complaints it received about the advertisement in part, finding the “confronting content could act as a trigger for vulnerable viewers of any age and was likely to cause harm to some consumers” and ordering it off-air.

The independent Commercial Approvals Bureau’s rating allowed it to be broadcast any time except during children’s programming.

The Complaints Board said the classification and placement of the advertisement were “inappropriate given the confronting subject matter and the depiction of a method of suicide”, and should have been rated at least adults only.

The Herald ran the video the day the campaign was launched as part of news coverage about the issue, and reactions of politicians.