Background
Summary of Council decision:
Four issues were investigated, all of which were Upheld.
Ad description
Two in-app ads for Dreame, a romantic fiction app:
a. The first ad, seen between levels of a free game on the Apple store on 16 August 2025, featured the text “Just One Kiss, before divorcing me” underneath an image of a shirtless man embracing a woman against a wall.
Text stated “Rin. Her Husband of three years, Cal, was home for the night. He only came home from the city once or twice a week. He crawled into their marital bed and pulled her right towards him […] He murmured as he tugged at her sleepwear till it was gone”. Text continued, “It never took him long to be all hard and wanting of her body”. Further text included “Do you want me Rin?” he asked, even though he knew well she did want him” and “She was all hot and wet and well on her way to [sic] for him. A button labelled “Continue Reading” appeared underneath.
b. The second ad, seen in the Colour Slide-Hexa Puzzle app on 6 November 2025, featured the text “Just One Kiss, before divorcing me”. Further text stated “‘I’m not on birth control!’ He slams into her...” which appeared over an image of a man positioned above a woman in visible distress.
Text underneath included “Rin. Her Husband of three years, Cal, was home for the night. He only came home from the city once or twice a week. He crawled into their marital bed…” followed by a button labelled “Read the full version”.
Issue
- One complainant, who believed ad (a) was sexually explicit, challenged whether the ad was offensive; and
- had been irresponsibly targeted.
- A second complainant, who believed ad (b) trivialised and condoned sexual assault against women, challenged whether the ad was harmful, offensive and irresponsible; and
- had been irresponsibly targeted.
Response
1., 2., 3. & 4. Dreame International Hong Kong Ltd t/a Stary PTE Ltd said they would remove the ads immediately.
Assessment
1. & 2. Upheld
The CAP Code stated that ads must be prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society and must not cause serious or widespread offence.
The ASA understood that ad (a) appeared between levels of a free, 4+ rated game that we considered was likely to have appeal to a general audience, including to children.
We understood that some adults would recognise the text as an extract from a published novel available on the advertised app. However, we considered those excerpts selected for, and reproduced in the ad, were sexually explicit in nature. Text described sexual activity and arousal, including “He murmured as he tugged at her sleepwear till it was gone”, “It never took him long to be all hard and wanting of her body”, and “She was all hot and wet”, underneath an image of a shirtless man embracing a woman against a wall.
While we acknowledged the ad was for an app featuring novels of adult themes and explicit content, we considered the advertiser must ensure that their ads did not feature content which was likely to cause offence or harm.
For those reasons we concluded the ad was likely to cause both serious and widespread offence, and had been irresponsibly targeted, because it was not suitable to be published in any game.
On those points, ad (a) breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 1.3 (Social responsibility), and 4.1 (Harm and offence).
3. & 4. Upheld
Ad (b) was seen in the Colour Slide-Hexa Puzzle app on 6 November 2025, also a 4+ rated game, which was likely to have appeal to a general audience, including to children.
Ad (b) included the text “‘I’m not on birth control!’ He slams into her…”, shown over an image of a topless man positioned above a woman who was screaming and appeared to be visibly distressed. Alongside that, text underneath also seen in ad (a), stated “Just One Kiss, before divorcing me” and “He crawled into their marital bed…” which we considered further implied that the violence portrayed in the ad was of a sexual nature. We considered that the ad depicted a non-consensual sexual act and was likely to cause serious and widespread offence. In addition, we considered that the ad appeared to present portrayals of assault with the purpose of entertaining readers, which had the effect of trivialising and condoning sexual assault. For those reasons we considered the ad was not suitable to be featured in any medium.
We concluded the ad trivialised and condoned sexual assault and was likely to cause both serious and widespread offence, and had been irresponsibly targeted, because it was not suitable to be published in any game.
On those points, ad (b) breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 1.3 (Social responsibility), 4.1 and 4.4 (Harm and offence).
Action
The ads must not appear again in their current form. We told Dreame International Hong Kong Ltd t/a Stary PTE Ltd to ensure that their ads were socially responsible and did not cause serious or widespread offence, including by trivialising or condoning the serious subject of violence against women, or by including sexually explicit content, and to ensure that their ads were responsibly targeted.
