Advertising self regulation has faced the ultimate test after the Advertising Standards Bureau was forced to investigate complaints against its own ad - ultimately dismissing claims it was inappropriate.
The ad for the ASB depicts two children watching TV while their mother browses the ASB website. A voiceover explains that if you find an advertisement offensive, violent or sexist you can lodge a complaint with the ASB.
In a complaint lodged with the ASB about the ad one viewer states: “I found it inappropriate how it showed woman in their underwear, in sexually implied poses. I object to this ad being shown at 4:20 PM when children could be watching television”.
Another complaint said: “Throughout the ad only Caucasian people were shown, I found this extremely racist and offensive.”
In defence of its own ad the ASB said: “The Bureau prepared this public awareness advertisement with due care to ensure that the advertisement was compliant with the AANA Advertiser Code of Ethics while communicating the concepts covered by the Code”.
“Having considered several previous determinations made about similar images used in television advertising, the Board considered that the majority of the advertisement was not sexualised and depicted people in a home or Board environment and that it was highlighting that viewers can raise concerns about advertising content then the advertisement did treat the issue of sex, sexuality and nudity with sensitivity to the relevant PG rated audience.”
The Board dismissed the complaints.
Board members who took part in the ad did not take part in the review.
View the ASB's full response here, or watch the ad below and judge for yourself.
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