Cosmetic surgery ad comparing breastfeeding mums to cow udders banned by watchdog
An ad from a cosmetic surgery clinic using an image of a cow’s udders to target women who have experienced changes as a result of breast feeding has been banned by the Ad Standards Board.
The ad, featured the headline “Look familiar?” next to the image of the udders.
The Assure Cosmetic Centre website
After complaints about the print ad from Perth’s Assure Cosmetic Centre, the company responded to the ASB claiming that its ad was “empowering”. It argued:
“A key market segment for Assure is mums. It is medically proven that many women experience a change in their breasts after childbirth. This change is often even more evident in mums who have breastfed their children.
“The overwhelming motivation for this market segment to explore breast surgery is to return their breasts to how they were pre-children.
“The intent for the ‘Cow’ advertisement was simply to catch the attention of mums who identify with the imagery in a light hearted way. It is not uncommon for mums to use this analogy themselves when referring to their breasts and the use of the headline ‘Look familiar?’ reinforces this position.
“The sub-head ‘Ladies, it’s time to reclaim your breasts’ was written as an empowering statement. That is, ladies who are not happy with their breasts can do something about this by exploring their options and deciding for themselves if breast augmentation is for them.”
It added: ” We are not suggesting women are cows unless they have their breasts augmented. We are simply using a light hearted image to make an observation many women quite openly make amongst themselves.
“Many mums look back on their pre-baby breasts with fondness – remembering them as ‘perky’, ‘strong’, ‘womanly’. We simply wish to convey that they can change the shape of their breasts surgically if they wish to remediate for some of the effects of child-birth and breastfeeding.”
Banning the ad, the ASB ruled: “The Board noted that the use of the words look familiar?’ is a direct call to action to women to think about and consider the appearance of their own breasts and
whether the udders shown in the image look in anyway similar to your own breasts.”
It went on: “The image of the cow’s udders in connection with the reference to ‘reclaiming your breasts” creates an overall impression that is negative and draws a negative relationship between women and cows.
After being told it had lost the case, Assure Cosmetic Centre claimed: “We had already decided to withdraw the ad as we felt it didn’t align with our premium brand positioning.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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