Saucy Gold Coast ads go next level
GOLD Coasters behind Australia’s most controversial TV ads have gone next level, with Mike Tyson and curvy lads mag models in Las Vegas.
The ex-heavyweight boxing champ – jailed for rape in the 1990s despite always maintaining his innocence – stars in a new instalment of Ultra Tune’s ad series.
The car-servicing giant’s ads, which always feature scantily clad bikini models, typically spark loads of Advertising Standards Bureau (ABS) sexism complaints.
The new one stars voluptuous Coasters Parnia Porsche and Tyana Hansen.
Surfers Paradise-based Ultra Tune owner Sean Buckley, who shelled out more than $500,000 on the Las Vegas shoot, is unapologetic if anyone gets offended.
“The ads are very successful, controversial and cause a lot of problems but we continue to do it because ultimately it hits the market, which is males,” Mr Buckley said.
“Guys in the research say ‘I tell my wife I don’t like it but I really do’. They think they are funny. Women think they are funny. The demographic most against them are women 45 to 60.”
He was stoked to sign on Tyson after previously using Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Tyson, the youngest heavyweight champ in history, served three years jail in the 1990s after a conviction for raping pageant contestant Desiree Washington.
Always maintaining his innocence, Tyson has had a career renaissance since a 2009 cameo in hit movie The Hangover.
Mr Buckley said if Tyson was “good enough for Hollywood, it’s good enough for a small company like ours”.
An earlier ad with Miss Porsche posing provocatively in a skin-tight rubber suit to advertise tyres sparked 400 ABS complaints.
One of the first ads was discontinued after ABS complaints argued it depicted women as “bimbos” – with Porsche conking out on train tracks and screaming but not getting out as a train approaches.
“This behaviour, in the board’s view, made the women appear unintelligent and presented them in a stereotypical helpless female situation,” ABS’s board said.
Mr Buckley said the ads were meant to be a fun joke.
“Australia used to be quite a humorous place – we’ve become quite uptight.
“If Ultra Tune was a public company with shareholders I probably couldn’t get away with it. But because I’m the only one I have to answer to, I can,” he said.
Mr Buckley has grown Ultra Tune from 50 franchises to 300 since taking over 23 years ago. The new ads start screening in January.