Sunburn competition banned after complaints

PA

A competition that asked holidaymakers to send in photos of their sunburn has been banned by the advertising watchdog, which branded it 'irresponsible'.

Comparison website dealchecker.co.uk ran the contest in July. It offered the prize of a holiday for two in a promotional email with the headline 'Earn with your burn.'

Customers were asked to send their own sunburn pictures to an email address that began 'likealobster'.

After receiving a complaint, the Advertising Standards Authority ruled that the campaign 'could be seen to trivialise sunburn', and encourage people to get burnt.

Parent company DMC Digital claimed that it intended to promote sun safety with the competition, which also offered suncream as a prize.

DMC told the watchdog it did not want people to risk their skin for the competition and made it clear they wanted 'old' photos of sunburn.

But the ASA upheld the complaint, saying: 'The promotion could encourage recipients to get sunburnt in order to be able to enter the competition.'