Electric eel ad 'leaving children scared to go to toilet'

The always reliable Ananova ^ | 6/12/02 | Unknown

[Rebelbase]

TV watchdogs have ruled a Hula Hoops advert featuring electric eels is too scary for young children.

The ad for Shoks shows the eels slithering out of taps and toilets after being released into the water supply.

Parents have complained pre-school children have been left too scared to go to the bathroom.

The Independent Television Commission has put a 7.30pm watershed on the advert being shown.

It is also considering whether to impose a total ban after receiving complaints from 106 viewers.

An ITC spokeswoman told Ananova: "We've had complaints from parents who say the advert has made their children too scared to use the bathroom. They think the eels will come out of the taps and the toilet.

"We've put a time restriction on to try and stop it being seen by young children. We're also investigating several other complaints.

"Some viewers are concerned about the welfare of the eels, some think it is irresponsible to show things being released into the water supply, and others just don't like the advert."

[shaggy eel]

,,, smoked eel is popular here, most commonly in vacuum packed form thru a local deli. At the fun level, after nightfall, we use three pronged forks and spotlights to catch eels in creeks. They're quite boney but the taste is worth the hassle of processing them. It's not something you'd eat every week though. The wood that works out best to smoke them with is called Manuka - a very hard, pink tinged New Zealand native.

[tacticalogic]

pink tinged New Zealand native.

Pink-tinged New Zealand Natives Bump!

[shaggy eel]

LOL! The tinged natives that aren't trees are actually brown.

[shaggy eel]

,,, please stay seated during the entire performance.

[Don Myers]

It wouldn't make me too comfortable either.

[tacticalogic]

LOL! The tinged natives that aren't trees are actually brown.

I'll bet there's some pink tinge scattered in there somewhere if you know where to look.

[timydnuc]

I used to have a similar fear of using "out houses". As I matured I realized that no self respecting snake would live in that kind if s&i*!

[Willie Green]

Calling all punners. Hope it's not too eely in the day for you.

I thought your puns were quite eeloquent.

[shaggy eel]

you win!

[shaggy eel]

,,, glad I called you in for the sake of eelasticity.

[vikingchick]

"Shocking!"

Get it? Get it?

[archy]

The good news is the plumber fixed that blockage in the toilet drain. The bad news is about your cat...

[archy]

Good news, kiddies! You no longer have to worry about the eels in the plumbing....

The rats ate most of them...and soon, all those rats will be hungry again....

[vikingchick]

Rats, eels...I'm not getting any REM sleep tonight, that's for sure.

[rintense]

Smells kinda fishy to me. ;-p

[Rebelbase]

That picture reminds me of that huge Python that was caught living under a house in South FL about 10 years ago. It was eating the neighbor's dogs.

[Palladin]

I tried to get Eelton John to write a song about this, but he wiggled out of it!

[shaggy eel]

,,, as you can imagine, I'm not too eelated about that!

[JudyB1938]

Archy, changing the subject here, but has there been any progress made in the case of FReeper Gary Flynn, who was murdered in April, 2001? I'd forgotten about it until I checked out your home page. I did a google search, but couldn't find anything - except the page with the suspect's sketch and the two FR threads about it ... CALIFORNIA GUN STORE OWNER MURDERED (- NEED HELP!) ... The loss of Gary Flynn [MURDERED FREEPER] By the way, did anybody ever figure out his FReeper handle?

Then there's the case of Chief Negotiator, who was murdered in October of that same year. Taxman, do you have any updates you can give us?