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Wicked Campers falls foul of ad watchdog again for ‘fat girls are harder to kidnap’ slogan

The Advertising Standards Board has upheld another complaint against Wicked Campers for using the slogan “fat girls are harder to kidnap!” on one of its vans, ruling it makes light of behaviour which is against community standards on safety, but was not “discriminatory against overweight females”.

Two weeks ago the brand fell foul of the watchdog for a slogan reading “Get out ya tits and we’ll call it quits”, and has also been censured by the ASB for a Chuck Norris blowjob messagea pot smoking promo, “it’s better to be black than gay“,encouraging killing kangaroosa menstrual cycle joke and snogging an aboriginal.

A complaint to the ad watchdog read: “There are two main reasons that I was offended by the slogan. The first being the reference to fat girls and the second the idea of kidnap being made fun of. Violence against women, and casual misogyny in the name of humor, when branded on a vehicle in public space is reprehensible. This condones violence against women, it degrades women, it degrades a particular group ( fat people) and in my 12 year olds words ‘ is very rude’. ”

Wicked Campers no longer responds to complaints to the ASB, which was noted by the board during the ruling.

The board considered the complainants’ concerns that the ad is “sexist and offensive to overweight people”, however considered the reference in this instance “whilst tasteless and not a nice references, does not meet the threshold for being discriminatory or vilifying towards overweight females or to females in general”.

While the board ruled that the advertisement “did not depict material that discriminated against or vilified sections of society”, it upheld the complaint due to it making light of, and encouraging, behaviour which is against prevailing community standards on safety.

In its ruling “the board noted that there is significant community concern regarding kidnap, especially in light of current high profile cases involving the abduction and murder of children both in Australia and overseas”.

The board ruled the phrase “fat girls are harder to kidnap” made light of a serious issue.

Miranda Ward

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