Ad description
A paid-for YouTube ad for Orchid Romance, an online introduction agency, was seen on 11 March 2022. It featured an image of a young female wearing long earrings, lipstick and a strappy top looking slightly away from the camera. Text underneath stated “Find Your Soulmate Beautiful Women Seeking Older Men. Join now.”
Issue
The complainant, who believed the model featured appeared to be a child and had been portrayed in a sexual way, challenged whether the ad was irresponsible.Response
Cellar Door Ltd t/a Orchid Romance said they mainly used photographs of users who were registered on their website. Under their terms of use, all users must be 18 years old or reach the age of majority set by the laws in their country of origin. They said they checked and kept records of identity documents of their members to verify their identity. Orchid Romance said the person featured in the ad was a registered member of the website and although her profile was currently deactivated, based on those records they confirmed that she was 27. Orchid Romance provided a redacted screenshot of her passport.
Google Ireland said the ad was served through Google Ads, a self-administered system, and under the terms agreed to by advertisers, it was the advertiser’s responsibility to abide by applicable law and regulations, including the CAP Code. However, they said the ad was found to be in breach of Google’s policies, and they had taken steps to prevent it from being served again.
Assessment
Upheld
The CAP Code stated that marketing communications must not portray or represent anyone who is, or seems to be, under 18 in a sexual way.
The ASA noted that only the model’s head and shoulders were visible, and we understood that she was 27 years of age. However, we considered she appeared to be considerably younger; she was petite with smooth skin which made her appear to be under the age of 18. She was looking slightly away from the camera from behind what seemed to be a white lace curtain, which gave her an air of shyness and innocence. She wore dangling earrings, red lipstick and her outfit was low-cut, with a thin shoulder strap, which we considered was incongruous considering her child-like appearance.
Text underneath the image stated, “Beautiful women seeking older men.” We considered that the image of a model who looked much younger than 18, in conjunction with that text and the specific reference to “older men” further underlined her youthful appearance and was likely to be seen as sexualised.
Because we considered the ad portrayed someone in a sexual way who seemed to be under 18 years of age, we concluded it was irresponsible and 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 4.8 4.8 Marketing communications must not portray or represent anyone who is, or seems to be, under 18 in a sexual way. However, this rule does not apply to marketing communications whose principal function is to promote the welfare of, or to prevent harm to, under-18s, provided any sexual portrayal or representation is not excessive. (Harm and offence).
Action
The ad must not appear again. We told Cellar Door Ltd t/a Orchid Romance to ensure future ads did not include images that portrayed or represented anyone who was, or seemed to be, under 18 years of age in a sexual manner.
