Ad description
A paid-for in-app ad for Pocket FM, an audiobook app, seen in the Vinted app on 7 November 2025, featured a long form video for an audiobook. The thumbnail featured the title “The Royal Accident” and the text, “She lost her virginity to a stranger!”. The ad featured on-screen text and a voice-over which stated, “I lost my virginity to a stranger who disappeared before the sun even came up. My head was spinning and the only memory I had was my stepsister’s smile as she gave me that drink […] Amelia was shocked, last night was a blur. Amelia’s sister had drugged her, making her lose all control, and she ended up sleeping with a stranger […] Little did Amelia know, her whole life had changed, the minute she decided to sleep with a stranger”.
The ad continued for several minutes and followed the plot of the story.
Issue
The complainant, who believed the ad trivialised sexual assault, challenged whether the ad was irresponsible, offensive, and harmful.
Response
Pocket FM Private Ltd suspended the ad during the course of the investigation. They said the ad promoted an adult-audience audiobook, “The Royal Accident”, in which the storyline involved sexual assault and the use of a “date rape” drug. They said that the words used in the ad were excerpts from the fictional story and should be considered in that context. They provided a list of books and films which dealt with similar themes, and said that there must be freedom to advertise such works in a way that conveys the subject matter.
They said that ad appeared in the Vinted app. They understood that Vinted social media profiles had an audience of 91% females typically aged between 20 and 34 years. They said that demonstrated the ad was appropriately targeted for the product.
Pocket FM said that the ad referred to the key plot points and argued that there was no trivialisation of sexual assault in either the story or the ad. They said the ad did not contain any references to sex acts, the objectification of women or harmful gender stereotyping, including any reference to incest. They believed that the ad was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence.
Vinted Platform Ltd (Vinted) said, once the ad was reported to them, they immediately took steps to block such ads and escalated the case to the ad management platform. The platform had informed Vinted that a technical issue had allowed the ad to circumvent their system and be served before it was flagged and blocked.
Vinted said they had a strict policy for ads served on their platform to ensure that their users were not exposed to any harmful or inappropriate ads.
Assessment
Upheld
The CAP Code stated that marketing communications must be prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society, and must not contain anything that was likely to cause serious or widespread offence.
The ad appeared on the Vinted app, an online marketplace, which we considered was likely to have appeal to a broad and general audience. It promoted an audiobook available on the Pocket FM platform titled, “The Royal Accident”. The on-screen text and voice-over told the story of a woman who “lost [her] virginity to a stranger” after her “stepsister gave [her] that drink” and “drugged her making her lose all control”. The ASA considered that consumers would understand the story to be a reference to sexual assault.
Whilst we acknowledged the ad was for an audiobook relating to sexual themes, we considered the ad went beyond stating or referencing that the product contained adult content. Further, we considered that sexual assault was a serious issue which should be treated with sensitivity. We considered that the tone of the ad, which used AI images and voice-overs to narrate the story, and featured the text “She lost her virginity to a stranger!” and “she ended up sleeping with a stranger”, trivialised sexual assault and framed it in a manner that degraded the woman who was depicted.
We considered that the audience of the Vinted app would not expect to see ads featuring sexually explicit content in that context, but that, in any case, for the reasons outlined above, the content would not have been acceptable in any context.
On that basis, we concluded the ad was likely to cause serious and widespread offence and therefore breached the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 1.3 (Social responsibility) and 4.1 (Harm and offence).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Pocket FM Private Ltd to ensure future ads were prepared responsibly, and did not cause serious or widespread offence, including through references to sexual assault or sexual violence.
