Language, discrimination and sex, sexuality and nudity are the three main issues in the most complained about ads so far this year.
The most complained about ad featured a young boy mimicking his father and using the phrase ‘bloody caravans’. Complainants were concerned about the child swearing, however the Board found that ‘bloody’ was a commonly accepted colloquial term which wasn’t said aggressively and dismissed the complaints.
The second most complained about ad was for a dating site for married people, which featured men singing “I’m looking for someone other than my wife”. The Board upheld complaints about this ad for being discriminatory towards wives.
The Board dismissed complaints about a similar ad, which is the 9th most complained about, featuring women singing “I’m looking for someone other than my man”, finding the term ‘man’ too broad to be discriminatory against a particular group of people.
Complaints about sex, sexuality and nudity also feature in the list, including an ad for the streaming service Stan, using the term ‘big pussy’ to describe a cat. Other ads on the list received complaints for showing a woman licking chip flavouring off a man’s lips, an ad which depicts two men kissing, and a poster showing a naked male torso with a hemp leaf covering the genitals. In each of these cases the Board decided the level of sex, sexuality and nudity used was not inappropriate for the intended audiences and dismissed the complaints.
The Board upheld complaints against an ad which featured a woman with a picture of a prawn behind her ear and the tag line ‘hearing aids are ugly’ for vilifying a section of the community on account of their disability.
So far in 2015 Ad Standards has received over 2,700 complaints.
Most complained about ads January to June 2015
0098/15 Holden Ltd
TV ad features a man driving and complaining about “Bloody caravaners”.
Dismissed, number of complaints: 161
0036/15 Ashley Maddison – Avid Life
TV ad features men singing about “looking for someone other than my wife”.
Upheld, number of complaints: 138
0208/15 Stan
TV ad refers to a cat on as a ‘big pussy’.
Dismissed, number of complaints: 66
0253/15 Fantastic Snacks Australia
TV ad shows a wife licking chip flavouring off her husband’s lips.
Dismissed, number of complaints: 63
0026/15 Unilever Australia
TV ad for a hair product which features two men kissing.
Dismissed, number of complaints: 62
0020/15 Bingle Insurance
TV ad features a computer generated chimpanzee parachuting from a plane.
Dismissed, number of complaints: 41
0211/15 Twentieth Century Fox Film Distributors Pty Ltd
TV ads for the upcoming movie ‘Poltergeist’.
Dismissed, number of complaints: 36
0214/15 The Body Shop
Poster of naked male torso with hemp leaf covering genitals.
Dismissed, number of complaints: 30
0106/15 Ashley Maddison – Avid Life
TV ad features women singing about “looking for someone other than my man”.
Dismissed, number of complaints: 30
0234/15 Victorian Hearing
Social media advertisement featuring a picture of a woman with a prawn behind her ear with the tag line “hearing aids are ugly”.
Upheld, number of complaints: 21