Ad description
A magazine ad for fish bait seen in Carp World magazine on 4 March 2016. The ad featured the body of a woman lying on her side wearing a bra and stockings, with her thigh and torso exposed. The woman appeared to be removing her underwear, with her right hand placed on her thigh, and her thumb between her underwear and skin.
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the ad was offensive, because the image was demeaning to women, and bore no relationship to the product advertised.
Response
Signature Creative Solutions Ltd argued that the nudity was not explicit and pointed out that the ad did not contain any discriminatory comments about women. They believed that the woman was relevant to the advertised product because she was used throughout their online advertising campaign, and also related to the sub-heading "It's never looked so good!" They stated that the magazine in which the ad appeared had stringent advertising guidelines, and would not have been published if it was deemed to be offensive.
Angling Publications Ltd did not believe the ad was demeaning to women. They said that the readership of Carpworld magazine was predominantly male, and considered it unlikely that their readers would be offended by the content. They said they had run many ads with similar images in the past, which had proved successful in creating brand awareness. In addition, while the ad was not directly related to the product, the idea of the ad was to catch the reader's attention, which they felt it did successfully.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA noted that the ad focused on the physical features of a woman who was wearing lingerie and whose head was not visible. The image bore no relevance to the advertised product and was accompanied by text that stated "it's never looked so good". We considered readers would understand that the woman was being referred to as the “it” in that sentence and that they would consider the text, in conjunction with the image, presented an objectified view of, and was therefore demeaning to, women. Although we acknowledged that similar ads had previously appeared in Carp World, we considered readers of a fishing magazine would generally not expect to see ads that objectified or were otherwise demeaning to women. We therefore concluded that the ad was likely to cause serious offence to some readers.
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 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 Signature Creative Solutions Ltd to ensure that future ads did not portray women in a manner that objectified them and which was likely to cause serious offence.
