Ad description
A direct mailing, for a sexual enhancement spray, was headed "At last, an effective solution to erection problems! Get an immediate, hard erection - guaranteed! Below was an image of a naked woman, lying on her front and looking up at the camera. The leaflet contained various similar claims about increased sexual performance and testimonials detailing the effect the product had had on a number of men's sex lives, along with a further image of the woman, lying on her front, with her nipple exposed.
Issue
The complainant objected that the unsolicited ad was offensive, because of the sexual content.
Response
Regal Health did not respond to the ASA's enquiries.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA was concerned by Regal Health's lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 1.7 Any unreasonable delay in responding to the ASA's enquiries will normally be considered a breach of the Code. (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
We noted the mailing contained overtly sexual content and we therefore considered that it required very careful targeting to avoid causing offence to unsuspecting recipients. However, we understood from the complainant that the mailing was unsolicited. Since the ad was likely to cause serious and widespread offence and had not been adequately targeted, we concluded that the ad breached the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules
1.3
1.3
Marketing communications must be prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society.
(Social responsibility) and
4.1
4.1
Marketing communications must not contain anything that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence. Particular care must be taken to avoid causing offence on the grounds of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability or age. Compliance will be judged on the context, medium, audience, product and prevailing standards.
Marketing communications may be distasteful without necessarily breaching this rule. Marketers are urged to consider public sensitivities before using potentially offensive material.
The fact that a product is offensive to some people is not grounds for finding a marketing communication in breach of the Code.
(Harm and offence).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Regal Health to ensure similar marketing communications were carefully targeted in future to avoid causing offence. We asked CAP to inform its members of the problem with Regal Health.
