Background
Summary of Council decision:
Two issues were investigated, both of which were Upheld.
Ad description
An in-game mobile app ad for the artificial intelligence (AI) photo editor app AI Mirror, seen on 8 September 2023 in the mobile app game Pocket Champs, featured an image of a real woman with an anime/manga style face who was bent forward and wore small, tight shorts that were being pulled up past her hips to expose the bottom part of her buttocks. Superimposed text stated “Try this Ai effect”.
Issue
The complainant, who believed the ad was overly sexualised and objectified women, challenged whether the ad:
1. was harmful, offensive and irresponsible; and
2. had been irresponsibly targeted.
Response
Polyverse Inc t/a AI Mirror apologised for the ad and said that it had been uploaded independently by an agency. They had promptly requested the ad’s removal after they became aware of it. They had not deliberately placed the ad in Pocket Champs; its placement had occurred due to their ad network’s algorithm. They said they were committed to enhancing their oversight of the external agencies they employ.
Madbox, the publisher of Pocket Champs, said that their in-app ads were served programmatically via third-party networks. As a result, because of the high volume of ads shown through their apps, they said direct human control could only occur after the ads were served and in a limited manner. They added they took the advertising rules and ethical conduct seriously and had activated the controls provided by their ad networks to regulate the ads shown in their apps. In light of the complaint, they said they had taken action to prevent a similar situation happening again.
AppLovin Corporation, the ad network that served the ad, said that after being informed of the complaint they had paused ads for the AI Mirror app being served through their network. They said their terms of use agreement and other policies included content restrictions, and that advertisers had to agree to comply with those polices and all applicable laws and regulations. They said they had reminded Polyverse of these ad content policies and the consequences for breaking them, and that they would now require Polyverse to seek pre-approval before uploading ads to be served via Applovin’s network.
Assessment
1. & 2. Upheld
The ASA considered the woman was presented in a sexualised manner, and that by portraying her in that way, where her image was intended to be edited and altered as part of the app, the ad objectified her. We further considered the ad included a harmful stereotype by presenting the woman as a sexual object with the purpose of titillating viewers.
For those reasons we concluded the ad was irresponsible and likely to cause both serious and widespread offence, and had been irresponsibly targeted, because it was not suitable to be published in any game. We concluded the ad breached the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 1.3 (Social responsibility), 4.1 and 4.9 (Harm and offence).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Polyverse Inc t/a AI Mirror to ensure their ads were socially responsible and did not cause serious or widespread offence, including by featuring a harmful gender stereotype by objectifying and sexualising women. We also told them to ensure that their ads were responsibly targeted.
