UK’s Advertising Standards Authority decides whether an advertisement can live or die. If an ad is found to be offensive, misleading, or violates UK’s strict advertising rules in any way, the agency can ban it. Like a doting schoolmarm, the media watchdog makes no qualms about exercising its authority.
Last year, the ASA banned the City of Nottingham’s anti-begging ad for promoting negative stereotypes, and an underwear ad that “sexualized young people,” among many others.
The latest advertisement to fall under the guillotine is an ad aired in Spring 2016 promoting the mobile game, Mobile Strike. The ad was deemed “offensive” because it “objectified women,” and the ASA put its creators at Machine Zone on notice.
The low-budget looking ad features three plus-sized models, Tabria Majors, Olivia Jensen and Dana Patterson, in bikinis as they play the game on their phones while lounging at a swimming pool. It was deemed too risqué by the censorship authority.
“The ASA noted that the images of the women wearing swimwear bore no relation to the product being advertised—a combat-themed mobile game app. We also noted that in some of the scenes, the mannerisms of the women were seductive or sexually-charged,” declared the ASA.
“For example, in one scene, a woman wearing a thong bikini was seen walking towards a sun lounger and the camera angle was taken from below and behind so that as she walked into the scene, only her legs and her thong bikini bottoms were in view,” the assessment continued.
You can almost hear the pearl-clutching echo across the ocean.
“We noted that another scene featuring one of the women wearing a swimsuit was shot in slow motion, and the emphasis was on her body rather than the mobile game app she was playing. One of the camera angles was shot side-on which highlighted her waist and chest. As she approached the camera, she flicked her hair back, stopped and looked seductively into the camera.”
The ASA states that the presence of plus-sized models, rather than conventionally attractive women, was no excuse for the ad’s “offensiveness.”
“We noted that the ad featured plus-sized models but we considered that fact was irrelevant,” the ASA stated. “For those reasons, we considered that the ad objectified women and was therefore offensive.”
Curiously, the ASA had no problem clearing Hello Games’ misleading advertisements of No Man’s Sky of any wrongdoing, despite receiving 23 complaints from the public.
In the United States, Machine Zone hired movie star and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to represent the game in a 30-second Superbowl ad, which reportedly cost the company a cool $5 million.
Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at @stillgray on Twitter and on Facebook.
