The sci-fi spoof Eight Legged Freaks, directed by Kiwi Ellory Elkayem, has terrified arachnophobes with its poster campaign.
The lifelike posters for the film about giant spiders invading an American small town have provoked more than 50 complaints to the British Advertising Standards Authority from people with a fear of spiders.
One
complained that he almost crashed his car when he was startled by a large roadside poster depicting one of the film's mutant spiders attacking a human.
The posters were up across the country before the film was released last week in Britain and some feature three-dimensional spiders beside the words, "Eight Legged Freaks ... Let the squashing begin".
It is the second controversial episode surrounding the Warner Brothers production. The film company had to drop its original title, Arac Attack, because of the possibility of an American invasion of Iraq.
A spokeswoman for the Advertising Standards Authority said it was the highest number of spider-related complaints the organisation had received, although arachnophiles had also complained.
"The arachnophobes think that it is distressing and object to it being on a poster ... We have also had two complaints from people about the words 'let the squashing begin'. Apparently, they think that it's likely to make people kill and squash spiders."
The ASA has been receiving two or three complaints a day about the posters since the start of August. Its code says that no advertisement should cause fear or distress without good reason and that advertisers should not use shocking images to attract attention.
The spokeswoman said the ASA had decided that it could not investigate the complaints because the offence caused would not be sufficiently widespread.
- INDEPENDENT
* Eight Legged Freaks opens in New Zealand on September 26.
