An artificial grass company has been forced to remove an "offensive" billboard advertisement that 'objectified and stereotyped women as sexual objects'.
The giant poster for Great Grass MCR Ltd features an image of a woman wearing only a thong laying on top of an artificial grass lawn. Above the image, the headline text reads 'Artificial Grarse Experts' while a tagline below states: "Perfect 365 days a year...Get laid by the best."
The billboard was put up by the business, based in Failsworth, Oldham, at a busy junction in Hollinwood, where Oldham Road meets the M60. However, an investigation was launched the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) - the UK's advertising watchdog for all media - after complaints were received over the poster.
According to Manchester Evening News, the self-regulatory organisation stated: "The complainants, who believed the ad objectified and sexualised women, challenged whether the ad was offensive, harmful and irresponsible."
After an investigation, the complaints were upheld, with the ASA ruling that the advertisement 'objectified and stereotyped women as sexual objects'. In a judgement published today, the watchdog said: "We noted that the word 'grass' was spelt incorrectly to include the word 'arse'.
"We considered that was likely to be understood by readers to be a reference to the model's buttocks and had the effect of making that exposed part of her body the focus, thereby drawing attention to the ad.
"The ad also stated 'Get laid by the best'. We considered 'get laid' would be understood by readers as a slang reference to sexual intercourse. We considered that text, together with the model's pose and state of undress, was sexually suggestive and would be seen as presenting the model as a sexual object.
"We acknowledged that while sunbathing, people might recline on a lawn wearing revealing clothing. However, we considered that in the context of the ad, in particular the references to 'arse' and 'get laid', the model was portrayed as a sexual object, rather than someone who was sunbathing.
"For those reasons, we concluded that the ad objectified and stereotyped women as sexual objects, was irresponsible and likely to cause serious offence."
In response to the ruling, Great Grass MCR Ltd said that 'Get laid by the best' had been used as a strap line by the company for years. The business also claimed that 'perfect 365 days a year' meant that its grass stays in excellent condition all year round.
However, the ASA has ordered the poster to be removed and told the company to ensure future ads were socially responsible and did not cause serious offence, including by featuring a damaging gender stereotype by objectifying and sexualising women.
The ASA said: "Great Grass said it was noteworthy that there had only been three complaints when the ad had been seen by thousands of people. They therefore believed that most people were not offended by the ad, but found it amusing.
"They believed the complaints were generated by people on social media encouraging others who likely had not even have seen the ad, to complain about it.
"Great Grass also said that to assume that the person featured in the ad was a woman was wrong and offensive to the transgender community."
A spokesman for Great Grass said: "The ad was a bit of light-hearted fun and not intended to offend anyone. There have been a number of people posting the ad on social media with positive comments.
"We thought with all the problems going on in the world at the moment anything that can bring a smile is a welcome distraction. It is a very busy junction and the ad has been seen by thousands and thousands of people.
"To the three who found it offensive, we apologise. To the fifty odd thousand who found it amusing, sorry it's got to go."
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