Banned!….seems silly now

[Semi42]

Thinking back to the old days, lots of controversy arose from things that now seems so tame. They did however get nationally banned from TV, radio airplay, newsagent stands and shops. Rightly or wrongly here’s some I recall.

Tango pop tv ad
The advert had an orange guy appear and slap the beverage drinker , banned because kids were copying it.

Action Comic

boys comic that featured bloodthirsty stories like killer shark hookjaw (Jaws movie influenced) Death Game ( Rollerball movie influence ) and Dredger (Dirty Harry influenced) .Was pulled from the shelves and did return but was much tamer.


french kiss lil Louis

chart single among many that were banned because of its sexual overtones, this was unusual in that there was no lyrics, just moans.
Yet despite the Who’s “squeezebox” obvious lyrics, that was never banned.

Embassy Regal cigarettes .

The total ban on advertising tobacco had not yet been enforced but the success of this advertising campaign on billboards and newspapers showed the power of a good ad campaign . “Reg” became a bit of a cult hero but his image was soon erased from the public view

any more to add?

[I. R. Fincham]

Tango pop tv ad
The advert had an orange guy appear and slap the beverage drinker , banned because kids were copying it.

Note that a child had his eardrum damaged because of people copying that advert. And it wasn't banned, it was withdrawn by the company. I disagree with your premise that the withdrawal seems silly. It makes sense to me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange...nd_controversy

[tex]

Walkers had a crisp advert banned which showed Gary lineker pinching a kids crisps!.....now that is daft!

[W1 Rover]

I think that WH Smith banned The Strangler's album No More Heroes album from their shelves way back when. There was one song in particular that was perceived as being too offensive. Anyone familiar with the album will know the track I mean. Whether or not that was silly is largely a matter of opinion, the company made a decision and implemented it, I can respect that.
Going back further in time Terry Jack's single Seasons In The Sun (1974) also caused some controversy. I believe some hospital radio stations of the time banned it, for obvious reasons.

[George 1978]

Thinking back to the old days, lots of controversy arose from things that now seems so tame. They did however get nationally banned from TV, radio airplay, newsagent stands and shops. Rightly or wrongly here’s some I recall.

Tango pop tv ad
The advert had an orange guy appear and slap the beverage drinker , banned because kids were copying it.

It literally a playground craze, and I did get "ringing" in the ears when someone did that to me at school - The Sun mentioned that kids were copying it in the classroom, and of course that was how it got banned. The ITC originally put a 7.30 pm curfew on it, which was extended to 9.00 pm when complaints continued to flood in, and it was eventually banned altogether when the complaints wouldn't stop. It was replaced by another advert which was identical on screen apart from the bit where the orange man kissed another man passing by on the street - ironically, no complaints were received about that.

Spitting Image parodied it in one of their early 1990s showing a grey-faced John Major (in monochrome as SI did portrayed him when he was PM), drinking from a can, and the strapline at the end was: "you know when you've been Quangoed". That was the first time that I had ever heard the word Quango and it took me a while to find out what the word meant - thankfully I was familiar with it from news bulletins...

[I. R. Fincham]

Quite a few songs have airplay friendly versions, The Who's Who Are You? is a good example, as is The Strangler's Peaches.

The BBC banned Lola by the Kinks, because it named Coca Cola, and the BBC had a policy of not naming specific brands in their broadcasts.

So they made a BBC version, with "cherry cola" instead. That was acceptable.

The BBC may have missed what the song was about, though.

[tex]

The BBC banned Lola by the Kinks, because it named Coca Cola, and the BBC had a policy of not naming specific brands in their broadcasts.

So they made a BBC version, with "cherry cola" instead. That was acceptable.

The BBC may have missed what the song was about, though.

Trannies right?

[Semi42]

The BBC banned Lola by the Kinks, because it named Coca Cola, and the BBC had a policy of not naming specific brands in their broadcasts.

So they made a BBC version, with "cherry cola" instead. That was acceptable.

The BBC may have missed what the song was about, though.

And although the theme tune from top cat was never altered, it was always advertised and announced as Boss Cat as there was a cat food available at the time called top cat

[beccabear67]

A lot of songs with the word 'high' in the title were banned in the '60s by the Beeb.

I remember a reading about a couple of controversies about Sooty; one was his hitting old Harry on the head with his little hammer, and the other was Soo the panda bringing 'sex' into children's telly. Bonkers!

[George 1978]

The BBC banned Lola by the Kinks, because it named Coca Cola, and the BBC had a policy of not naming specific brands in their broadcasts.

So they made a BBC version, with "cherry cola" instead. That was acceptable.

The BBC may have missed what the song was about, though.

In the same way, that Blue Peter wasn't allowed to use Sellotape but sticky-backed plastic, and you weren't allowed to Hoover with a vacuum cleaner either.

The 1970s group Guys and Dolls specially written a song for an Oxo advert which was literally called Only Oxo Does it, and it had be changed to Only Loving Does it so that it could enter the charts - I am certain that We Are the Ovaltineys [sic] was a song which wasn't forced to change the title in that way - wasn't that on Radio Luxembourg all the time?

On the other hand, I actually thought that Divine Comedy's National Express sounded like too much like product placement for the aforementioned coach company, and I was very surprised that stations like Radio 2 frequently played it in the late 1990s.

[George 1978]

And although the theme tune from top cat was never altered, it was always advertised and announced as Boss Cat as there was a cat food available at the time called top cat

And this is from the same BBC that gave actor Charles Dale a character name in the TV series Casualty which was the same name as a McDonald's product - Big Mac.

[George 1978]

Rellogg's [sic] Corn Flakes, etc - even the cockerel on the box was intact.

And Heinz Baked Beans tins with the same colour and shape logo with black space where the Heinz name should be.

[George 1978]

I've heard of The Beastie Boys License To Ill not being sold to under 16s by some shops, or only being available on request.

Was Lou Reed's A Walk On The Wild Side banned because of it's lyrics?

Quite a few songs have airplay friendly versions, The Who's Who Are You? is a good example, as is The Strangler's Peaches.

Most of the films of the Video Nasties list are now available.

I thought that Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Relax was banned throughout the BBC, but I think that it was only Mike Read who refused to play it, and it didn't extend further to just Radio 1 - BBC Radio Nottingham still played it in the late 1980s.

With all the recent Glitter, Harris foray pushed aside, during the DLT trial I was amazed that around the same time as that trial, Ken Bruce had played the CW McCall's Convoy considering the obvious link between a cover version of that song with the former Hairy Cornflake.

The Lou Reed song still gets seen occasionally on NOW 70s (Sky 361) which does look rather risque when one sees the video.

[George 1978]

I thought that the Sex Pistols had got the "Glitter" treatment as well, although the NOW music channels still play them - I think that it's only the BBC that have resisted playing them. Pick of the Pops would always skip their position in the charts and move onto the next song. I blame Bill Grundy myself.

For some reason, I keep confusing Adam Ant with Glitter as well, hence my surprise when radio stations still play Ant's music.

[tiwariishu887]

I've heard of The Beastie Boys License To Ill not being sold to under 16s by some shops, or only being available on request.