Posters advertising Lee Cronin’s film *The Mummy* have been banned from public display in locations frequented by children following complaints about their potentially distressing imagery. The decision was made by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after it received 30 complaints concerning a poster showing a close-up of a young girl with a mummified appearance, including one eye swollen shut and a face covered in brown material. The advertisement carried the tagline: “Some things are meant to stay buried. Lee Cronin’s The Mummy.” The poster was visible on the London Underground and on outdoor billboards.
The ASA also reviewed television and streaming advertisements for the film, which included brief scenes of a body being extracted from a sarcophagus and a distressed woman touched by a greying hand with brittle nails. These ads ended with the line: “I just want my daughter back.” While these television ads were cleared by Clearcast with a restriction to post-7.30pm airtime, the poster advertisements prompted significant concern.
Warner Bros, the film’s distributor, defended the campaign by stating that the posters were created with a sense of responsibility toward consumers and society. The company emphasized that the character depicted was a "living mummy," returned to her parents as a teenager or young adult after being kidnapped as a child, rather than a dead child. Warner Bros argued that the image showed a neutral facial expression, deliberately avoiding violent or intimidating elements to minimize potential distress. The company also noted the posters’ acceptance by Global, Transport for London’s advertising partner, allowing display on the London Underground.
Regarding the trailer, Warner Bros highlighted that horror elements were implied rather than shown explicitly, stating that it contained no “jump scares, no violence or gore,” nor graphic imagery.
Despite these assurances, the ASA found that the posters realistically portrayed a dead child due to the girl’s grey and ashen skin tone, cracked lips, one swollen eye, and a vacant, lifeless expression. It concluded that viewers would likely interpret the image as a realistic depiction of a corpse. Given the posters’ placement in highly visible public spaces such as the London Underground and outdoor billboards, the ASA determined that the ads were likely to be seen by children and could cause distress.
On this basis, the authority ruled that the posters were unsuitable for outdoor display in locations accessible to children, thereby breaching advertising codes. The ASA’s action highlights ongoing tensions between creative marketing for horror films and public sensitivities, particularly concerning imagery that might be disturbing to younger audiences.