ASA Adjudication on Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures UK

Ad

An internet ad for the cinema release of the film 'Adventureland' showed the torso of a woman wearing a white T-shirt with the word "Adventureland" written on it. On-screen text at the top of the screen stated “From the director of SUPERBAD. In Cinemas 11th September” while text at the bottom of the ad stated "Lift my shirt to see more. Click and drag up with your mouse". If users followed the on-screen instructions, the woman removed her T-shirt revealing that she was naked underneath. A large black rectangle appeared on the screen to cover her breasts and then grew to fill the entire screen. The film trailer was then shown.

Issue

The complainant challenged whether:

1. the ad was offensive because it encouraged users to lift the woman's shirt in a voyeuristic manner; and

2. the ad was inappropriately located on the Yahoo! news page where it could easily be seen by children.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

1. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures UK (Walt Disney) said they believed that the ad was not offensive and that the image of the woman lifting her top should be viewed in the context of the film trailer and the medium in which it was made available to the public.  They argued that ads featuring womens breasts were fairly common and that such images were used in many publications aimed at male audiences and were tolerated by the general public.  They said that they took steps to ensure that the ad was suitable for its target audience and that it was then targeted accordingly.

Yahoo! said they did not believe the ad was gratuitous, offensive or shocking and that it merely reflected the nature of the advertised film.  They said they did not think that most people would consider it to be sexual or voyeuristic and that it would not cause serious or widespread offence.

2. Walt Disney said the trailer had been certified with a 15 rating by the British Board of Film Classification, which was consistent with the rating of the film itself.  They also said the content of the ad was designed with the target audience of 16- to 34-year-old men in mind and that its placement and exposure was planned accordingly on the Yahoo! webpage.

They said the ad relied on user activation before the trailer started and so casual viewing was prevented. They also said,  although it was not always possible to prevent children from seeing unsuitable advertisements, they were confident that they had put in place measures to ensure that the ad appeared on websites visited by the films targeted demographic and that nobody under 15 was actively encouraged to view the ad.

Yahoo! said the ad ran on their news page which had a 95% readership of people aged 18 or over. They argued that, with such a high adult audience, it was unlikely that many children would have seen the ad. They also said viewing the ad was entirely dependent on user interaction and that it avoided instances of the ad being played unless users wanted to view it.   They said the trailer did not contain any "adult content" and that there was no sexual imagery. They argued that the ad was designed in accordance with the age rating of the film and the website demographic and that it merely reflected the nature of the advertised film.

Assessment

1. Upheld

The ASA considered that, before any action was taken,  the ad  implied users would be able to expose the woman's breasts by using the computer mouse to lift up her top, as encouraged by the on-screen instructions.  We noted, although the womans breasts were obscured by a black rectangle, this was not apparent until the user had already taken action.    We acknowledged that the film was about the experiences of a teenage boy before he went to college, but noted  removing the woman's top had no direct link to the content of the film trailer that followed and was therefore gratuitous. We concluded that, because users were encouraged to take action to remove the woman's top in order to see her breasts, the ad was likely to cause serious offence to some users.

On this point the ad breached CAP Code clause 5.1 (Decency).

2. Upheld

The ASA noted Yahoo!'s assertion that the audience for the Yahoo! News page was overwhelmingly over 18 years of age.  However, we considered that the site was of general interest and likely to appeal to a broad range of internet users and that the ad was not protected through age verification or targeting.  We considered that because users were actively encouraged to remove the womans top, the ad was unsuitable for children and that Walt Disney had not taken adequate steps to ensure it was appropriately targeted. We concluded that the ad was in breach of the Code.

On this point the ad breached CAP Code clauses 2.2 (Social responsibility).

Action

The ad should not appear again in its current form.   

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)