Ad description
Three paid-for Meta ads for Project Makeover, a mobile app game, seen in September 2025.
a. The first ad featured an animation of a pregnant female character, who had unruly hair and was wearing a dirty and patched dress, sitting between two male characters on a plane. The characters were labelled “Stanger”, “Wife” and “Husband”. The female character’s husband was shown undoing her seatbelt with his toenail, scratching her stomach in the process. The female character asked her husband for help refastening her seatbelt; he responded by slapping her stomach and saying “You are just pregnant, not disabled!”.
The characters were then shown leaving an airport, with the female character struggling to carry heavy luggage up a flight of stairs, while her husband took an escalator and told her to “Hurry up!”. She then slipped and fell through the air, but was caught by the stranger, who said, “Maybe you should leave him.” On-screen icons appeared, labelled “Agree with him” and “Ignore him”. An on-screen hand selected the “Agree” option.
The stranger took the female character to a house labelled “Project Makeover. The next scenes presented on-screen options to change her appearance, including “Take a bath”, “Haircut” and “Dress”, and then showed her and the stranger cleaning up the house, interspersed with gameplay from the Project Makeover game. The female character was then shown getting a makeover.
b. The second ad featured an animation of a female character, who had long dirty hair, sitting between two male characters on a plane. The female character and one of the males were labelled “Husband” and “Wife”. The third character was shown taking off his dirty shoes, putting them on the table in front of the female character, and then resting his dirty feet on his table. The female character held her nose, and asked her husband for help. When he stood up, the other male rolled up his sleeves to show his muscles. The husband, who appeared intimidated, said, “It’s not a big deal”, and sat down again.
The female character was then shown leaving the plane, dropping her bag down the steps and falling after it. On-screen icons appeared, labelled “Fall apart” and “Freshen up”. An on-screen hand selected the “Freshen up” option. She was then shown arriving at a beauty parlour labelled “Project Makeover. The next scenes showed her taking a shower, having a haircut, and trying on new clothes. She was shown having her head shaved, due to the selected haircut option, and reacting negatively to the results.
c. The third ad featured an animation of a female character with unkempt dirty hair, in bed with her male partner. The male was shown writing his name, Ken, on her tongue with a pen. On-screen text stated, “He wrote his name to show his love”, as Ken took selfies of him with his arm around her, while she stuck out her tongue. A speech bubble from Ken stated, “Good girl”. The animation then showed Ken introducing her to two male friends, who reacted with smiling face with horns emojis, pulled out their own pens, and cornered her against a row of lockers. A speech bubble from one of the friend characters stated, “Try my hand at it”, as the female character fell over and started screaming. The three male characters loomed over her as a speech bubble from Ken stated, “Show your love”. On-screen icons appeared, labelled “Help her” and “Ignore”. An on-screen hand selected “Help her”, and the three male characters were swiped off the screen by a large hand, which then picked the female character up and transported her to a dental clinic.
She was then seen having her dirty teeth cleaned, and the word “Ken” washed off her tongue. The next scenes showed her having her legs shaved, and trying on clothes. On-screen text at the end of the animation stated “Project MAKEOVER […] Help the girl!”.
Issue
The ASA challenged whether the ads were irresponsible, offensive and harmful.
Response
Magic Tavern Inc said that they had taken steps to prevent similar content from appearing in their future marketing materials.
Assessment
Upheld
The CAP Code required marketers to ensure that advertising was prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society. The Code stated that marketing communications must not contain anything that was likely to cause serious or widespread offence, with particular care being taken to avoid causing offence on the grounds of gender, and pregnancy and maternity. The Code also stated that marketing communications must not include gender stereotypes that were likely to cause harm, or serious or widespread offence.
Ad (a) depicted the pregnant female character being scratched, slapped and belittled by her husband. Ad (b) depicted a female character being upset by a male character, who then intimidated her husband, leading him to back down from a confrontation with the other male character, and downplaying her concerns. Ad (c) showed a man writing his name on his female partner’s tongue, which we considered had the effect of portraying her as his property. The ad then depicted the female character being physically harassed and made to fear for her safety due to a further attempted assault by her partner and his friends.
We considered that all three ads depicted violent and aggressive behaviour from male characters towards female characters, including one who was pregnant, and that the ads had the effect of normalising and making light of domestic violence, abusive relationships, and bullying behaviour. We considered that such references being used in ads for a mobile app game trivialised and condoned the serious subject of violence against women.
Furthermore, the female characters in all three ads were initially portrayed as having dirty, unkempt hair, appeared to have poorly applied makeup, and were dressed in unflattering or dirty and ripped clothes. The second section of ad (a) depicted the female character being bathed, receiving a more stereotypically feminine haircut, and being dressed in more stereotypically feminine clothing, all decisions which were then shown being rewarded by the game. Ad (b) showed the choice to shave the female characters head resulting in her being upset, and points being lost in the game. The selection of a clown outfit, instead of a more stereotypically feminine outfit, then led her to become angry, and the further loss of points. Ad (c) showed the female character having her legs shaved, and when a less stereotypically feminine outfit was chosen, she cried and points were lost in the game.
We considered that the ads therefore suggested that women who did not maintain a certain appearance, or who appeared to be scruffy or unkempt, were more likely to be treated poorly, as depicted in some of the ads’ scenarios. We further considered that showing in-game points being lost when a player chose a shorter haircut or a less stereotypically attractive outfit had the effect of reinforcing a stereotype for women to look a certain way. We considered that the presentation of the scenarios in which the female characters found themselves, and their ensuing actions and choices, suggested that personal makeovers of hair and clothing were part of the solution to escaping unsafe relationships. We considered that played on stereotypes regarding women, physical appearance and the need to conform to social norms.
We welcomed Magic Tavern's comments regarding their future ads. Overall, however, we considered that viewers would interpret the ads as depicting the female characters as victims of physical assault and bullying, partly because of their physical appearance or due to their being pregnant. We considered that the ads contained harmful gender stereotypes regarding physical appearance, and had the effect of trivialising and condoning domestic violence. We therefore concluded that the ads were likely to cause serious and widespread offence.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 1.3 (Social responsibility) and 4.1 and 4.9 (Harm and offence).
Action
The ads must not appear again in the form complained about. We told Magic Tavern Inc to ensure that their ads were socially responsible and did not cause serious or widespread offence, including by normalising, condoning and making light of domestic violence, abusive relationships and bullying behaviour, by objectifying women, and by presenting gender stereotypes in a way that was likely to cause harm.
