ASA Adjudication on The Gas Showroom Ltd

Ad

Poster, for a gas showroom, that showed a woman in a bikini standing in front of a gas fire. The woman was touching her hair and looking provocatively away from the fire. The headline stated “Let the Gas Showroom stick something warm in your hearth-hole!”

Issue

The complainant believed that the ad was offensive, particularly because it appeared in the ladies and girls toilets in family friendly pubs.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

The Gas Showroom said they had carefully considered the ad and did not believe it was offensive.  They said the ad was intended to be wryly humorous.  The Gas Showroom argued that women in bikinis could be seen in most daily newspapers, on the television, the internet and family holidays.  They said they had not received any complaints or negative feedback.  The Gas Showroom said the ad was first displayed in five public houses in Wakefield, two of which included a Wacky Warehouse, a childrens play area.  They said an average of 6,760,000 children visited a Wacky Warehouse every year and argued that one complaint was not sufficient to show if serious or widespread offence had been caused.

Assessment

Complaint upheld

The ASA noted the Gas Showroom's comments.  We noted the image of the woman and headline was unrelated to the product.  We considered that, although the image was not explicit, it was sexually suggestive.  We noted that we had received one complaint only but we considered the headline Let the Gas Showroom stick something warm in your hearth-hole! in conjunction with the provocative image of the woman made the ad unsuitable for display in an untargeted medium.  We concluded the ad was likely to cause serious or widespread offence.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 5.1, 5.2 (Decency) and 47.2 (Children).

Action

We told The Gas Showroom not to repeat the ad in an untargeted medium.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)