Grenfell Tower is edited out of Voltarol TV advert

• Advert showed people playing football on pitches close to the council block 
• Edit noticed by Karim Mussilhy, whose uncle Hesham Rahman died in the fire

Grenfell Tower has been edited out of a TV advert, leading a bereaved family to label the move as insulting.

The advert for the pain relief gel Voltarol showed people playing football on the Westway football pitches close to the council block, which had been used as a relief base in the aftermath of the fire on June 14, 2017.

Grenfell, which is currently covered in white sheeting and topped with a banner saying ‘forever in our hearts’ had disappeared, while the two other nearby council towers stayed in shot.

The edit was noticed by Karim Mussilhy, whose uncle Hesham Rahman was among 72 people who died as a result of the fire, whilst he was watching the Channel 4 streaming service on Monday.

Mussihy told the Guardian: ‘It was really upsetting. It seems nobody wants to see it any more, that it’s an eyesore. The vibe I feel is that [people] want it gone.’

Grenfell Tower was edited out of the TV advert for pain relief gel Voltarol, filmed at a football pitch near the site of the devastating fire

How the Westway sports centre looks in reality, with Grenfell seen alongside other towers in the background

Grenfell, which is currently covered in white sheeting and topped with a banner saying ‘forever in our hearts’ had disappeared, while the two other nearby council towers stayed in shot

Clear editing marks were noticed by Mussilhy, who said he recognised the scene as he had grown up playing football on the artificial pitches in North Kensington, which are frequently used by members of the Grenfell community.

The advert has been running on Channel 4’s terrestrial channel and was commissioned by Haleon, a consumer health company.

Haleon confirmed the editing had happened and told the Guardian: ‘We are deeply sorry for any distress that our recent Voltarol advertisement may have caused. We will be taking the advert off air with immediate effect.’

READ MORE: Man who lived in the Grenfell Tower flat where the infamous fire began says the tragedy has left him ‘a ghost of a man’ in moving statement at victims’ event

The advert is believed to have been intended for foreign as well as UK markets, which fed into the decision to edit out the tower.

It is likely to have upset a number of the bereaved families and survivors of the tragedy, who are feeling increasingly frustrated that the disaster is being forgotten about by the general public.

No individual or company has been held accountable for the acts and omissions that led to the blaze by criminal prosecutors.

The Grenfell Tower public inquiry had initially hoped to publish a final report on the fire before the seventh anniversary of the tragedy. However, this week it said the final publication would be delayed.

This means criminal charges of corporate manslaughter and gross negligence being brought in the wake of a refurbishment using materials that were combustible will be further delayed.

Furthermore, in November, the Grenfell Tower memorial commission proposed creating a permanent memorial on the site of the tower – including a garden, tall monument and a structure to protect visitors from the weather.

But government funding is yet to be agreed, leading the commission to warn that providing a design brief to architects for the memorial was not yet possible without ‘greater certainty around the budgetary framework and about what the commitments made by government will mean in practice’.

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