Ad description
A post on the Facebook page for Lee Andrews Male Grooming, seen on 21 June 2022, featured a cropped image of the lower half of a woman wearing a string bikini, lying on a beach. Pubic hair was seen to protrude from the bikini. Above the image, text stated, “When spring comes and your [sic] not ready”.
Issue
The complainant, who believed the image objectified women, challenged whether the ad was offensive and harmful.
Response
Lee Andrews Male Grooming confirmed over the telephone that they believed the complaint was unfounded and did not objectify women.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA noted that Lee Andrews Male Grooming provided grooming services and that, although their name referred to male grooming, they also provided waxing services for women, including bikini line waxing. We therefore acknowledged that the image was not entirely irrelevant to the service they offered.
However, we noted that the image was cropped from the waist down, removing the woman’s head and making her groin and pubic hair the dominant focus of the image. We considered that focus used the woman’s body to draw attention to the ad, and, in combination with the text in the ad, did so in a way that presented pubic hair as undesirable and the woman in the image as a subject of mockery. We considered that the image was likely to be seen as objectifying and demeaning women.
For these reasons we concluded that the ad was likely to cause serious and widespread offence.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule
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: age; disability; gender; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; and sexual orientation. 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 Lee Andrews Male Grooming to ensure that future ads did not cause serious or widespread offence by objectifying women.
