Scrap yard fails in ad watchdog case after claiming complaint was ‘discrimination against blonde beautiful women’
A scrap metal yard in Sydney has failed to stop its “exploitative and degrading” bilboard being banned after arguing a complaint against it was “discrimination against blonde beautiful women”.
The billboard for St George Scrap Metal featured an image of a woman in a bikini kneeling on a beach, with text reading “St George Metal Recovery. They are definitely not the largest. But I wouldn’t sell my stuff to anyone else”.
A complaint to the Advertising Standards Board (ASB) said: “I am offended by this advertisement because it is sexist to include a scantily-clad woman on a billboard advertising a service which has no relation whatsoever to the image used.”
Claiming the ad was “heavily photoshopped” the complainant added of the tagline: “What in the world does that have to do with scrap metal??? It is sexist, predatory and offensive.”
I cannot stand discrimination against blind beautiful woman.
I meant blond. And why are there no pictures of the offending billboard?
Hey, Another Agency. You corrected your first comment in your second comment but still got “blonde” wrong. Are you getting much work?
I’ll do the spelling corrections around here, thank you.
I’ll have a pint all the same please!
Poor me, then. I don’t drink.
Thats our billboard and in no way did we want to offend anyone.
Adrian – but you did and it’s pretty obvious a bikini clad girl has nothing to do with scrap metal – so why did you choose to advertise in this way?
Seems every ad campaign has its knockers – this one included.