Ad description
An ad, for a club night, was viewed on Manhattan Bar's Facebook page on 18 January 2012 and was headlined "CAN YOU CUM TWICE ON A FRIDAY?". The headline text was an off-white colour and the letters appeared to be formed from dripping liquid. Text below stated "Whatever you buy b4 midnight we'll give you FREE when you come again". The ad also included an image of a woman, whose facial expression was suggestive of sexual activity.
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the ad was likely to cause serious or widespread offence.
Response
Manhattan Bar did not respond to the ASA's enquiries.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA was concerned by Manhattan Bar's lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 1.7 Any unreasonable delay in responding to the ASA's enquiries will normally be considered a breach of the Code. (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
We noted the ad included an image of a woman whose facial expression was suggestive of sexual activity as well as the text "CAN YOU CUM TWICE ON A FRIDAY?", which appeared in the form of an off-white dripping liquid and we considered was a clear sexual reference. We considered the overall impression of the ad was likely to cause serious or widespread offence to visitors to Manhattan Bar's Facebook page and therefore concluded that it breached the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule
4.1
4.1
Marketing communications must not contain anything that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence. Particular care must be taken to avoid causing offence on the grounds of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability or age. Compliance will be judged on the context, medium, audience, product and prevailing standards.
Marketing communications may be distasteful without necessarily breaching this rule. Marketers are urged to consider public sensitivities before using potentially offensive material.
The fact that a product is offensive to some people is not grounds for finding a marketing communication in breach of the Code.
(Harm and offence).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Manhattan Bar to ensure their future advertising did not contain anything that was likely to cause serious or widespread offence. We referred the matter to CAP's Compliance team.
