Ad description
A direct mailing from Life Natural Cures for a sexual enhancement pill was headed "GLADIATOR - CONQUER YOUR VIRILITY! INCREASE YOUR SIZE & PERFORMANCE!" and featured an image of a naked man holding a sword between his legs, covering his genitalia. Below this was an image of the top half of a couple having sexual intercourse. Further images showed blurred close up images of a penis; a man in bed with two women making a ‘thumbs up’ sign and an illustration of a couple having sexual intercourse. At the back of the mailing was an order form and contact details.
Issue
A complainant objected that the mailing was unsolicited and offensive, due to the sexually explicit content.
Response
Life Natural Cures said the material was originally designed for adult mailings. They undertook to remove the images that had been complained about before using the material again in mailings designed for the general market.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA welcomed Life Natural Cures' undertaking not to use the material in mailings designed for the general market but noted that they had given us a similar assurance following the investigation of a similar complaint in 2012. We noted that sexually explicit images and wording appeared throughout the investigated ad. We considered that it should therefore have been carefully targeted to ensure that it was distributed responsibly to avoid causing offence to unsuspecting recipients. The mailing had been sent to the complainant unsolicited. Because the material was likely to cause serious and widespread offence and had not been adequately targeted, we concluded that the mailing breached the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules
1.3
1.3
Marketing communications must be prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society.
(Responsible advertising) and
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. We welcomed Life Natural Cures' undertaking not to use the material in mailings designed for the general market. We told Life Natural Cures to ensure similar marketing communications were carefully targeted in future to avoid causing offence.
