Camel Tanks ruled against for ad featuring domestic violence against a man
A TV ad for the manufacturer of poly rainwater tanks has fallen foul of the ad watchdog for a depiction of domestic violence against a man.
The 15-second ad for Camel Tanks featured a man showing his friend his new water tank during a barbecue. The man hugs the tank which results in his wife slapping him on the head.
A complaint against the spot argued it “could give young girls the idea it’s ok to use violence against boys, but not the other way round”.
Camel Tanks defended the spot arguing it was an attempt “to promote the benefits of owning a new water tank which is more attractive than the available competition”.
“Elements of the scenes such as the wife stealing her husband’s food and the husband dropping his sausage at the sight of the gorgeous tank are light hearted in nature. This visual presentation style is further exaggerated by loud sound effects,” Camel Tanks said.
It was the view of the brand that the ad was not “meant to reproduce a realistic situation but in fact are comic in nature”, arguing “the complainant is drawing a very long bow in connecting this humour with encouraging domestic violence.”
In its ruling, the board noted that the reaction of the man who was slapped “is indicative that the slap did hurt”. The board also noted the sound effect of the slap suggested it could have hurt the man and it was the board’s view the “sound effects were realistic and were not humorous nor could they be considered a slap stick depiction of violence”.
The board ruled “slapping a friend in response to such insignificant behaviour is not relevant to the product of the service advertised” and the depiction of violence was not justified in the context of the product advertised, thus the complaint was upheld.
Camel Tanks said there were no plans to run the advertisement again but “should there be a time in future that is used again we will remove the slap segment prior to showing”.
Miranda Ward
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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Oh dear! They’d better round up all copies of the old Benny Hill Show too, and send them to the CItadel of Censorship for destruction.
In the 21st century, no-one may laugh. It has been forbidden by the latte-Left.
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Imagine if movies were similarly filtered for politically correct content by a watchdog … why are ads more likely to corrupt us?
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@Andrew: Ads are short, interruptive and often repeated. If you are watching a show you don’t get to control the ads you see, while there’s more implicit permission around what you see in a movie since you’ve chosen that experience. Plus movies / TV shows can spend more time dealing with context and outcomes around an event such as a woman striking a man.
“Corrupt” is a strong word, but the entire point of an ad is to drive behaviour change. A movie might only have the aim of entertainment.
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@Andrew, after I saw this ad I had a sex change just so I could be female and hit men. THAT’S how corrupting it is.
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@mike, benny hill tapes have been locked up for years now, what with all of those politically incorrect saucy birds getting chased by the man himself.
@huw, i like this comment, good point.
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@ Hummus, I absolutely disagree with you, and the comment by huw that you say you “like” and label “good point,” is in my opinion, a cyclical intellectual waffle.
Most people watching free to air have full control over the medium; that telephone sized thing with all the numbered buttons, has a mute, a kill switch and a channel changer, and the repetitive nature of ads allows the viewer to instantly recognise the ad that supposedly offended last time/first time one viewed it.
Movies or series episodes are unknown quantities as a rule, and are therefore likely to offend at any instant, so sensitive plants beware.
The complaint was obviously not “violence against a man,” but violence against a man perpetrated by a woman!
There are many examples of violence against men in movies, series episodes and ads.
Punch and Judy, an off chute of the Commedia del Arte, depicted violence as humour , the result was always the hangman, we lost the message somewhere along with worry about Noddy and Gollywogs.
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Sorry about the typo, I meant Offshoot of course.
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My point stands: screen content regulation is a selective, possibly socio-politically driven and inconsistent.
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