Another Sportsbet ad gets the axe after ‘inciting ridicule’ of women
Ad Standards has upheld complaints that a Sportsbet ad vilifies and discriminates against women.
Complaints primarily focused on the advertisement being sexist because of the stereotypes that women with blonde hair and those who partake in beauty pageants are not bright.
The ad shows a blonde woman taking part in a beauty pageant and struggling to answer a question about why Sportsbet’s new app is so easy to use, while the host cringes in response.
Four separate cases were opened to address the ad, as complaints came in from its appearance on free-to-air TV, subscription TV, TV on demand and Twitter.
The Ad Standards panel said that for an advertisement to be ruled as vilifying an ethnicity, gender or section of the community, it has to convey a negative impression of the people in that group.
In its ruling, the panel determined that “the current advertisement conveys the overall impression that women who enter beauty pageants are unintelligent, which is a negative stereotype, and in the panel’s view this incites ridicule of these women”, and subsequently breached the code.
Regarding complaints that the ad objectifies and degrades women, the panel agreed with Sportsbet that there was no sexual appeal present in the ad.
Ad Standards wrote: “The language and visuals in the advertisement did not draw attention to the woman’s body or suggest that the woman was a sexual object.”
The ad is part of a campaign that uses satirical and exaggerated stereotypes of people, including vegans, elderly women and recipients of plastic surgery, to demonstrate that Sportsbet’s app is “fool proof”.
In August, Ad Standards dismissed complaints about the first iteration of the campaign that featured disgraced rugby player, Todd Carney.
The ad that featured Carney made reference to his “bubbler” incident in which a photo emerged of him appearing to urinate into his own mouth.
The case for that ad centred around complaints that employing Carney glorified his previous behaviour, was inappropriate for children to view, made a sexual reference and was distasteful.
The panel ruled in that instance that the concept of ‘distastefulness’ was not an issue for them to rule on under the code, and neither was the point that Carney was being glorified by being paid to appear in the ad.
Other complaints against that ad stemmed from the perceived vilification of vegans, elderly women and Nigerian people, each of which the panel dismissed.
The beauty pageant ad was set to be remove from all platforms by Sunday 29th September.
The woman has also been featured in spots broadcast during the AFL finals series. Mumbrella has reached out to Sportsbet to ask if the character will continue to appear in later ads.
Last year, Sportsbet produced the most complained about Australian ad of all time. The ad, which showed a naked man from the waist up “manscaping”, received 793 complaints.
sportsbet is aimed at bogans and I find the voiceover guy as irritating as the ads.
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Not a good look for Emotive. Doing creative work for Optus that talks to changing the future for girls in sport. Then this…..
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accurate depiction I thought. How bland will advertising be in 5 x years time at this rate?
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Advertising needs to rise above this.
@MD If stereotyping minorities is what keeps advertising “not bland” I am def worried about this industry.
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Won’t be long before Ads are “Please but this product” that is all…! No complaints about botox Bradley?
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Oh bloody relax. As they said back in the playground..”Can’t you take a joke?”
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I thought it was a reference to that Miss Teen 2007 video “like such as”.
That’s what came to mind immediately and gave me a chuckle.
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Does no one remember Miss South Carolina’s pageant speech? (“…the South Africa and such…”) This was clearly a reference to that viral moment.
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Wasn’t this just a reference to Miss South Carolina? Don’t think the intent was to stereotype all women, unless there’s something I’m missing??
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Agreed. I’d go one further and say that the ad is also targeted at Sportsbet’s staff, mainly bogan techbros. I can imagine Todd Carney’s contract included an office visit, he’s squarely in that demographic and they would have lapped him up (pun intended).
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Sportsbet has built its entire brand off of controversial work. How’s this a huge surprise? And so what if the agency made this and a campaign for the women’s world cup @hmmmmm! Are you suggesting agencies aren’t allowed to work on different brands? Advertising is made for consumers not your moral self-interest. And no, I don’t work for Emotive but I do rate them.
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Nothing wrong with using undergrad humour to flog a product. I personally hate gambling but this campaign is spot on for the target audience. The “permanently offended/Todd Carney” TVC is a hoot.
People need to lighten up FFS.
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weird that so many people all got the reference to a looonngggg dead viral video, down to the specific state and everything…
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You only need read a sample of the complaint to understand what group agitated to get this off the air.
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When are they going to ban ‘dumb male’ ads then? See them all the time. “Have you tried plugging it in darl?”, scenes of the lazy dad watching football, etc.
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Hi ‘S’,
There has actually been a ruling on this already.
In 2016, Ad Standards ruled against a WA pest control company for its vilification of husbands. It said “this style of humour is no longer acceptable”.
Should you wish to, you can read all about it here:
https://mumbrella.com.au/asb-husbands-advertising-standards-417782
Thanks.
Vivienne – Mumbrella
in my opinion the Ad Standards board should be abolished and anyone who submits complaints to it should pull their head in
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Get a life people. These are great ads – bang on target – me – a cashed up bogan looking for a bet and a laugh. Given every sports betting company trots out the same old girl’s-in-heels-at-the-track-cheering-on-a-winner, blokes-in-a-pub-all-best-mates, the Sportsbet ads are fun and appealing. Their longer-length videos (e.g., NRL ER) are piss-funny and I welcome them openly on my social feeds. Lighten up haters, these are clever and anyone with half a brain would recognize the ironies they make fun of.
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Totally agree with the last statement – these ads are at least amusing and above all NON PC. The protesting vegans gave me a chuckle. I’m guessing they are the best exact types whom submit these complaints.
Get lives people…
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