ASA Adjudication on Club Spice Ltd

Ad

A poster, for a lap dancing club was headed “Corporate Gentleman’s Entertainment Club Oops …!”. The ad showed an image of a naked woman from the waist down with underwear pulled down around her thighs. In the place of her face and upper body was a cartoon drawing of the silhouette of a naked woman pole dancing, above the word “Oops …”.

Issue

The complainant challenged whether the ad was sexist, offensive and demeaning to women and the nudity and sexual content was unsuitable for public display.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

Club Spice Ltd provided their response via the poster site management company, UK Media, who confirmed the poster had been situated at Crutched Friars, which had now been taken down following a year long campaign.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA understood that the poster had been in place for a year, but was no longer appearing. We noted that the woman was pictured naked and considered her pose and the removal of her underwear were likely to be seen as sexually suggestive. We noted that the nudity in the ad reflected the nature of Club Oops, but considered that the depiction of the woman in such a provocative pose with her underwear pulled down around her thighs, was likely to be seen as unduly explicit and degrading to women. We concluded that the image was likely to cause serious or widespread offence and concluded it was unsuitable for public display.

The ad breached CAP Code clause 5.1 (Decency).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)