Fostering agency apologises over 'insulting' ad campaign that replaced child with mop
Nina Jacobs
Friday, January 10, 2020
An advertising campaign aimed at recruiting foster carers by encouraging people to "swap a mop" for a child in care has been taken down after sparking outrage online.
Little Acorns Fostering, a privately owned independent fostering agency in Suffolk, said it was “devastated” to have caused offence for its commercial which features a couple looking after a mop as if it were their own foster child.
The 90-second advert, which ends with the couple looking upset after realising that their “child” is an inanimate object, encourages people to “put their love to better use” by fostering a child.
It shows the couple feeding the mop, which is dressed up as a child, teaching the mop skills such as riding a bike and eventually celebrating its graduation.
The fostering agency removed the advert a day after its release after complaints emerged on Twitter regarding the nature of its content including a hashtag #swapthemop used at the end.
If you are having trouble viewing the video, you can watch it below: pic.twitter.com/GkW2p3LLlT
— Charlotte Armitage (@charlottearmit7) January 8, 2020
Care campaigner Kenny Murray, who published a blog soon after the advert appeared online, branded it “disrespectful and downright dangerous” and called for people to use social media to get it taken down immediately.
Using the hashtag #StopTheMop in protest, Murray said the advert does not contain any dialogue and instead uses a call to action asking people if they felt “empty inside?”
“The people this campaign appeals to are told that if they feel ‘empty inside’ they can find fulfilment in fostering.
“That rather than putting their love into an inanimate object, they can take a child who has likely suffered from trauma and bring them up instead.
“There are so many reasons that this campaign is worrying. The call to action is one, the other is that the child in the video is in fact, a mop,” he said.
I don’t doubt good intentions of this ad, but agree with @kenny_murray. It’s not the purpose of fostered children to fulfil a need in adults, and they should never be compared to inanimate objects. All young people deserve to be loved for their own sake. We all need to do better. https://t.co/zMK6Zf7yZz
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) January 8, 2020
Several tweets posted in support of Murray’s blog called the advert “disgusting” and “insulting” and said that the campaign had been “misjudged” by the fostering agency.
The controversy even attracted the attention of Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon who backed Murray’s comments in a tweet.
“I don’t doubt good intentions of this ad but it’s not the purpose of fostered children to fulfil a need in adults, and they should never be compared to inanimate objects.
“All young people deserve to be loved for their own sake. We all need to do better.”
On behalf of LA Fostering, I would like to sincerely apologise for the offence we have caused with our campaign. It was far from our intention and we obviously got this terribly wrong. We are devasted to have caused such offence.
— Little Acorns Fostering (@LAFostering) January 9, 2020
In an apology published on Twitter, Little Acorns said the intention of the campaign was not to cause offence but to highlight the “wonderful experience” of being a foster carer and to raise awareness of the current need for thousands of foster carers in the UK.
Michael Jillions, the fostering agency’s business service director, posted in a tweet: “We have taken down the campaign and hope we can be forgiven as we will always remain dedicated to providing children in care with the very best outcomes.”
The family-run business, which was registered with Ofsted in February 2013, received an "outstanding" rating at its latest inspection in 2017.
