ASA Adjudication on UlsterTrader.com

Ad

A poster, for UlsterTrader.com, featured the cleavage of a woman wearing a white bra. Text stated "Nice Headlamps. What do you look for in a car?...".

Issue

44 complainants challenged whether the poster was offensive, because it objectified women, degraded them and was sexist.  Some complainants also considered that the poster implied that women, like cars, were commodities to be bought and sold.

CAP Code

Response

UlsterTrader.com said their brand values included the use of humour and fun, values which they believed were conveyed through the poster.  They believed it was a tongue-in-cheek reference, using light-hearted slang, to what people of both sexes would regard as attractive attributes.  

UlsterTrader.com pointed out that the woman was wearing a bra and there was nothing particularly 'raunchy' about the image and they did not use language which could be considered offensive.  They pointed out that the comparison between the woman's breasts and the headlamps of a car was not immediately obvious, although they accepted that it was the likely inference that readers would draw.

UlsterTrader.com said the poster appeared in 20 high profile and high traffic locations in Northern Ireland.  They disagreed with the contention that it implied that women were commodities to be "bought or sold", or that the ad was sexist for implying women would not need to buy or sell a car.  They also disagreed that the poster was likely to cause serious or widespread offence.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted some complainants believed the poster was offensive because, by primarily targeting a male audience, it implied that women did not need to buy or sell cars and was therefore sexist.  We considered that, while distasteful, the poster did not go as far as to suggest that the UlsterTrader.com service was only of relevance to men and was therefore unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence on the basis that it was sexist.

We noted some complainants believed the poster implied that women were commodities to be bought or sold.  We considered that the image of the woman's cleavage coupled with the strapline "Nice Headlamps.  What do you look for in a car?" was likely to be seen to objectify and degrade women by linking attributes of a woman, her cleavage, to attributes of a car, the headlamps, in a way that would be seen to imply a woman, like a car, was to be selected for those attributes.  

We concluded that the poster had caused serious offence to some readers and was likely to cause widespread offence.

The poster breached CAP Code clauses 5.1 and 5.2 (Taste and decency).

Action

The poster must not appear again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)