Advertising Standards Board rules against plastic surgery clinic billboard for the second time
A billboard ad for plastic surgery clinic Enhance Clinic has again been banned by the Advertising Standards Board (ASB) with the ad watchdog ruling it “did not treat the issue of sex, sexuality and nudity with sensitivity to the relevant audience”.
Featuring an image of a naked woman, with her hand resting over her groin with the area covered by a love heart, the words “Enhance Clinic” are written across the top of the image, covering the woman’s nipples. The ad’s remaining text lists the procedures available at the clinic.
The complaint follows on from an earlier version of the billboard being ruled against by the ASB in 2011 with the clinic modifying it by placing the love heart over the groin area.
A complaint made to the board read: “I feel the ad is bordering on pornographic. Just because a nipple is covered doesn’t mean the breast is covered. And the hand only just covers the pubic area. It is rude, offensive, degrading, a distraction to people driving and not something young eyes should be viewing. There is no need to have so much nudity.”
The clinic responded: “This complaint is a total waste of ours and the department’s time and should be treated as nothing more than a malicious and spurious complaint.
“We are a cosmetic surgery and our image is quite important, we do intimate surgery for woman and predominantly below the waist. In this picture, the person is naked but it’s blurred, and no body parts are shown. For example you cannot see nipples or breasts or hair or private parts. We would consider this a tasteful way of advertising our type of business.”
It added the clinic is “accommodating to different cultures and religions” and said the image shows potential customers “won’t discriminate” against them.
While the board decided the billboard presented the clinic’s services in a way “which informs the community of the services on offer but does not suggest that all women should undertake these treatments”, it ruled the placement of the woman’s hand between her legs “makes it appear as though she is touching herself intimately rather than covering herself, and considered that this made the image sexualised”.
They noted since the previous ruling in 2011 the love heart had been added to the ad, however the board considered “that as in the previously considered case, the woman’s hand appears more as if she is touching her genital area, rather than covering it.
“The Board noted that the use of the love heart to modify the previous image has not effectively addressed the concerns previously raised and that the image still has a sexualised tone.”
Miranda Ward worked for Mumbrella from 2013 to 2017, eventually becoming deputy editor. Miranda joined Mumbrella in September 2013 from Sky News.
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