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Poster ruled ‘offensive’ after just 1 complaint
AN ADVERT for Tunnock’s showing a tennis player holding a tea cake on her thigh has been banned after just one complaint that it was sexist.
Watchdogs ruled the poster “demeaning” and said the words “where do you keep yours?” and “serve up a treat” were likely “to cause cause serious offence to some consumers”.
A probe was launched when the Advertising Standards Authority received the complaint about the poster in November.
The complainant claimed the ad was “offensive” and “irresponsible” because it was “sexist” and “objectified women”.
Tunnock’s said the ad appeared on a poster site next to the SEC Hydro Arena in Glasgow to coincide with a charity match between Andy Murray and Roger Federer, and was created with a tennis audience in mind.
They said the “creative execution and placement” of the tea cakes were a substitute to the normal placement of tennis balls and that they were not placed in an abnormal position. The firm added they didn’t intend to offend anyone.
But the ASA found the ad to be in breach of rules regarding “social responsibility” plus “harm and offence” and banned it.
They said: “We noted the ad depicted a woman lifting her tennis skirt while holding a tea cake beside her hip, in place of where a tennis ball would usually be held, with her thigh exposed and underwear visible.”
They added that the phrase “serve up a treat” was a double entendre, “implying the woman featured in the ad was the ‘treat’, and considered this was likely to be viewed as demeaning to women”.