Queensland real estate ad censured for treating women ‘similar to cattle’
Brisbane-based real estate agent NGU Real Estate has had one of its online property ads banned by the ad watchdog for portraying women “as being similar to cattle”.
The three minute YouTube ad included women partying on a boat, swimming in a pool, and performing a fashion show down the hallway of the multi-million dollar mansion featured in the promotion.
Complaints labelled the ad as “objectifying of women” and “sexist”.
“This video needs to be removed as it is offence, degrading and dehumanizing [sic] to all women,” another complaint stated.
In response to the complaints NGU Real Estate said it respects the complaints but does not believe it has breached any marketing codes.
“The models are portrayed in a confident manner and the key female is fully clothed and in portrayed in a position of power and confidence. The content was created by women and intended to portray women in a confident and positive light,” NGU Real Estate added.
Agreeing with NGU Real Estate, the ad watchdog said the ad does portray the women in a confident and comfortable manner and despite having sexual innuendos throughout the ad they are only minor.
However, the Ad Standards Board found the scene where the “key female” watches women walk towards her dressed in different clothes is a scene which showed “the women being similar to cattle”.
“The women may have been modelling clothes, but the selected woman goes to stand next to the ‘key female’ after being selected, and the implication is that she has been chosen rather than the clothes.
“The Panel considered that this particular scene in the advertisement did employ sexual appeal in a manner which is exploitative of women in regards to the portrayal of women as commodities or objects to possess,” Ad Standards concluded upholding the complaint.
The banned scene where the women dismisses the models
NGU Real Estate said the ad had since been removed and notes that the company has not “acted unlawfully” because “advertising is self-regulated”.
Abigail Dawson was Mumbrella's senior content journalist covering event content. She left Mumbrella to move into an agency role in 2020.
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Lets assume that they also got the appropriate music licensing clearance – no doubt that Beyonce’s management and APRA would be interested in this.
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I got bored watching that advert. Way too long. But. If they had some beefcake in it …
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Worst music video ever!
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Cattle? I tried to see the point, but couldn’t even get started on the comparison to Cattle.
I saw women of wealth and power assembling to have fun and enjoy female company. They arrive by boat which they operate and manage by themselves, they bathe together, they enjoy their freedom and wealth, in an all woman environment where men are merely security staff and entertainment.
Apart from showcasing some very expensive real estate, and a clutch of expensive toys, it shows young women having a great time in an atmosphere that is vaguely lesbian suggestive.
Apart from a very few, we are all sexual beings, it is not an exaggeration or a wildly creative suggestion, it is an irrefutable fact, that scantly clad women are very much more pleasing to look at than are scantly clad men, irrespective of the gender of the viewer.
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Awful ad showing awful house will exactly the awful people who will buy it.
Sadly, I think they nailed the brief…but it ain’t for me.
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