A Northern-based paint company has been hit with more than 100 complaints over its new TV advert, which has been branded "offensive".
Crown Paints - which is based in Darwen in Lancashire - released the advert in question earlier this month, and through a cast of actors, singers, and spoken word performers, it tells the story of a young couple named Hannah and Dave.
The couple were said to have met at an illegal rave, and are now expecting their first child together.
Lyrics from the advert's jingle include: "Now a baby's coming and they don't know what it is. Hannah's hoping for a girl, Dave's just hoping that it's his.
"They're happy that their spare room's no longer grey because there's a baby on the way."
https://youtu.be/PEuyG1D4c4Q
Since its release and airing on TV screens across the UK, an Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) spokesman said it had received 150 complaints about the advert - which it is "currently assessing to determine if there is a potential problem under our rules and, if so, whether there are grounds for further action".
The ASA says the majority of complaints are mainly focused on whether the content in the advert is appropriate to be shown on television, as well as many taking to social media and calling it out for being "totally derogatory" towards women.
Comedian Jennie Eclair was one of the more prominent figures to complain to Crown Paints on social media earlier this week, tweeting: "Hey Crown Paints, get that offensive baby ad off air - what were you thinking!!!? What on earth possessed you?"
Author and podcast host, Daisy Buchanan, was one of the many people to welcome Eclair's tweet and say in response: "I honestly thought it was me being mad".
One viewer took to Twitter and said: "Totally derogatory of women, questioning her fidelity. Take it off because it won't sell much paint."
Others said it was "offensive", "misogynistic", and a "serious error of judgement".
Crown Paints then responded to Eclair's tweet saying: "Our ads are intended to give a humorous account of our characters’ stories. We appreciate that people have differing tastes when it comes to humour and whilst the ad has been broadly well received, we apologise if the remark has caused offence to anyone."
But Eclair still said she felt that the advert "set up a scenario that implies a woman has possibly conned a man into fatherhood".
The tweets have since been deleted.
Following both the growing online backlash, and the 150 official complaints about the advert, Crown Paints has issued a formal statement addressing the claims.
A spokesperson said: "This ad is one in a series that is intended to celebrate special moments in life in a humorous way.
"The characters of Hannah and Dave are shown to be in a happy relationship and preparing for their new arrival. There are no negative connotations intended from any of the lyrics and whilst the ad has been broadly well received, we recognise that people have differing tastes in humour.
"We apologise if any of the lines have caused offence."
Featured Image - Crown Paints
News
Leeds Festival 2026 – lineup, tickets, travel, stage times, and more
Leeds Festival is returning to Bramham Park for perhaps its biggest lineup yet, and here’s everything you need to know ahead of this huge live music weekend.
The enormous annual festival - twinned with Reading down south - will this year welcome headline performances from Fontaines DC, Florence & The Machine, Dave, Raye, Charli XCX, and Chase & Status.
But the wider lineup will cover everything from hip hop to pure pop, indie rock to metal, because if there’s one thing that Leeds Festival boasts, it’s an eclectic and diverse music soundscape for all to enjoy.
Leeds Festival has been providing Yorkshire residents and festival-goers from across the UK with some cracking acts and performers since 1999 - and this year is no different.
Here's everything you need to know if you're going to Leeds Festival 2026.
Leeds Festival 2026 lineup
Fontaines DC are one of the headliners of Leeds Festival 2026
Headliners for Leeds Fest 2026 will include Charli XCX, Chase & Status Live, Dave, Florence + The Machine, Fontaines D.C. and RAYE, with Kasabian making history as the first-ever Thursday night headliner at Leeds Festival.
They are joined across the weekend by the likes of Skepta, Sombr, Role Model, Blossoms, Declan McKenna, JADE, Maisie Peters, Keo, Kneecap, Geese, Kettama, Holly Humberstone and many more.
The 2026 festival will also look very different on site, with The Grid, The Gallery, The Warehouse, The Ballroom and The Canopy making up the new-look stage offering, alongside returning late-night favourite LS23.
The revamped layout is being billed as the biggest staging and arena overhaul in the festival's history.
Leeds Festival 2026 stage times - Thursday 27 August
The Grid
7pm – Arkayla
7:55pm – The Lathums
9:20pm – Kasabian
LS23
10pm – CamUKG
11:15pm – Halfpint
12:30am – C100
2am – Lens
Friday 28 August
Chase & Status will perform at Leeds Festival 2026Florence and the Machine will perform at Leeds Festival 2026
The Grid
12:15pm – 54 Ultra
1:30pm – Dylan John Thomas
2:45pm – Arthur Hill
3:55pm – Blossoms
5:25pm – Role Model
7:20pm – Florence + The Machine
9:30pm – Chase & Status Live
The Gallery
12pm – Mulaa Joans
12:50pm – After
1:40pm – Holly Humberstone
2:45pm – Julia Wolf
4pm – Duke Dumont
5:30pm – The K’s
7:15pm – Kettama
9:40pm – Kneecap
The Warehouse
12:25pm – [IVY]
1:25pm – Saint Ludo
2:55pm – Hamdi
3:55pm – Notion
5:25pm – SOTA
6:25pm – Hedex
7:25pm – Hybrid Minds
The Ballroom
12:40pm – Betty
1:45pm – Westside Cowboy
2:55pm – Dexter In The Newsagent
4:10pm – The Clause
5:45pm – WHATMORE
7:20pm – Bassvictim
9:30pm – Paris Paloma
The Canopy
12pm – Alex Spencer
12:40pm – She’s Green
1:20pm – Raynor
2pm – December 10
2:50pm – Untitled
3:40pm – Kilu
4:35pm – Violet Grohl
5:55pm – F3miii
LS23
11pm – ZERO
12:30am – 1991
1:45am – CROSSY
Saturday 29 August
Charli XCX is a Saturday headliner
The Grid
12:30pm – Beth McCarthy
1:25pm – Keo
2:35pm – James Marriott
3:45pm – Declan McKenna
5:15pm – Skepta
7:10pm – Charli XCX
9:20pm – Fontaines D.C.
The Gallery
12pm – JD Cliffe
12:30pm – DJ EJ
1:30pm – Rose Gray
2:45pm – ADELA
4pm – Skye Newman
5:20pm – Geese
7:20pm – SINN6R
9:05pm – 4AM Kru
The Warehouse
12pm – Meeshy
1:15pm – Djammin
2:30pm – Julian Fijma
3:30pm – Omar+
5pm – Locky
7pm – Alisha
9:05pm – Skepta B2B East End Dubs
The Ballroom
12:20pm – Bleech 9:3
1:30pm – Cardinals
2:40pm – Clementine Douglas
4pm – Overpass
5:30pm – Florence Road
7:15pm – Unpeople
9:15pm – YT
The Canopy
12pm – Tooth
12:40pm – Lamb
1:20pm – Florentenes
2pm – The Guest List
3pm – People I’ve Met
4:05pm – Day We Ran
5:05pm – Villanelle
6:05pm – Camille Blackman
LS23
11pm – Delilah
12:30am – Osmosis Jones
1:45am – Soul Mass Transit System
Sunday 30 August
Raye and Dave headline Sunday at Leeds Festival 2026
The Grid
12:05pm – Absolutely
1:35pm – Slayyyter
3pm – Maisie Peters
4:15pm – JADE
5:50pm – Sombr
7:35pm – RAYE
9:35pm – Dave
The Gallery
12pm – M60
12:45pm – Say Now
1:50pm – Clara La San
3:05pm – Kingfishr
4:15pm – Niko B
5:50pm – Nine Vicious
7:20pm – Jamie Webster
9:25pm – Josh Baker
The Warehouse
12pm – Jack Marlow
1:30pm – Silva Bumpa
2:45pm – In Parallel
4pm – Riordan
5:30pm – Mall Grab
7:15pm – Rossi.
The Ballroom
12:30pm – Garage Flower
1:45pm – The North
3pm – Basht.
4:15pm – Bar Italia
5:45pm – The Lilacs
7:40pm – SPEED
The Canopy
12pm – Sade Olutola
12:40pm – Pozzy
1:25pm – Amma
2:05pm – Ruby Roberts
3pm – Cruz Beckham And The Breakers
4pm – Kibo
4:50pm – Finessekid
6pm – Gurriers
LS23
11pm – Megra
12:30am – Pretty Girl
1:45am – Riria
Where can I get tickets for Leeds Festival 2026?
Tickets are available through the official Leeds Festival website and Ticketmaster, with weekend camping, non-camping, and individual day tickets among the options.
At the time of writing, official prices include £325 for weekend camping, £295 for weekend non-camping, £55 for Thursday, £125 for Friday, £155 for Saturday, and £125 for Sunday.
Two-day non-camping tickets are also available at £230.
You can see the latest availability and buy tickets HERE.
Where is Leeds Festival?
Leeds Festival 2026 headliners announced. Credit: Georgina Hurdsfield
Of course you may be thinking this is a silly question to ask considering its location is mentioned in the festival title, however Leeds Festival actually isn’t in the city centre.
Located in Bramham Park, this bank holiday weekend music destination is a 30 minute drive from the city centre.
The full address is: Leeds Festival, Bramham Park, Leeds, England, LS23 6ND.
How to get there
From Leeds City Centre
If you’re travelling from Leeds city centre, the easiest option is to head to Leeds Train Station and catch the dedicated Leeds Festival shuttle bus to Bramham Park.
The festival shuttle operates from Sovereign Square Park, next to Leeds Train Station, from Wednesday 26 August through to Monday 31 August. Tickets can be bought through the First Bus app.
Leeds Train Station is around a 30-minute drive from the festival site, although journey times can vary considerably during the festival due to traffic.
There are regular trains into Leeds from major UK cities including Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and London, making the train-and-shuttle combination one of the simplest ways to reach Bramham Park without driving.
From around the UK
If you're travelling from further afield, the official festival travel partner Big Green Coach is offering return coaches to Leeds Festival from dozens of locations around the UK. Weekend services can arrive on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday and return on Monday, while day-return services are available for Thursday through Sunday.
For those driving, festival parking is included with tickets. Drivers should head towards the A1, M1 or A1(M) and then follow the festival's temporary signage, as routes into Bramham Park vary depending on where you're travelling from. The festival advises following the on-the-ground signage rather than relying on old sat-nav directions or printed maps.
If you're being dropped off or collected, use the dedicated Pick Up and Drop Off zone off York Road (A64). There is no pick-up or drop-off facility near Yellow Gate, and the festival warns against stopping or waiting on the A64 or access roads.
For those flying in, Leeds Bradford International Airport is around a 30-minute drive from Bramham Park. You can take the 757 bus into Leeds and then use the festival shuttle from Leeds Train Station, or take a taxi to the station before continuing to the site.
‘Unprecedented’ El Niño to batter UK with storms when it arrives this autumn
Emily Sergeant
This autumn, the UK is being told to brace for a series of storms when the 'unprecedented' El Niño weather event arrives.
It's already been a summer of extremes for the country, with multiple heatwaves over the past couple of months, but now it appears that autumn and winter are set to have some extremes of their own, as the Met Office is warning that this upcoming El Niño could be one of the most significant in recent memory.
El Niño is declared when sea temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific rise 0.5°C above the long-term average, which therefore impacts global rainfall patterns and average temperatures.
The natural warming of sea temperatures is forecast to reach more than 3°C in the coming months, according to the Met Office, making this year’s weather event have the potential to be 'the largest since the 19th century'.
El Niño will create a heightened risk of drought in the tropics, southern Africa, and north eastern Australia, but over in north western Europe - including the UK - it means we are likely to experience wetter and stormier conditions.
The UK, and of course Yorkshire, is absolutely no stranger to a storm around this time of year, but forecasters say this could be an entirely different beast.
The UK is set to be battered by storms as 'unprecedented' El Niño arrives this autumn / Credit: Johannes Plenio (via Unsplash)
"We should be clear that this is an unprecedented event," warned Professor Adam Scaife, who is the Head of Long Range Forecasting at the Met Office.
"I have never seen an El Nino signal this intense in our forecasts."
Professor Scaife concluded: "A typical El Nino leads to an equatorial Pacific sea-surface temperature rise of between one to 2°C, with 2°C being a really big event. This implies that, if the forecast is accurate, and other forecast systems show similar extreme values, then 2026 will far exceed our recent experience of El Niño and its worldwide climate influences.'
Forecasters and officials, however, have warned that it could take months of sustained rainfall before rivers, reservoirs, and groundwaters are 'completely replenished' - which is when a drought can officially be declared as over.
It also warned drought conditions could persist into the new year as, despite El Niño, as current forecasts do not suggest this autumn will have the amount of rainfall needed to drive recovery.
The Hoot -
17th August 2022 
