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Wicked Campers narrowly avoids Queensland van de-registration following ad standards ruling

Wicked Campers has narrowly avoided having one of its vans deregistered after the Queensland Government suspended its registration until the company removed the “offensive” advertising deemed inappropriate by Ad Standards Board.

A Wicked Campers van with a Queensland registration, which had the statement “oral sex is a great last minute gift” written on the back, was banned by the Ad Standards for using inappropriate language and reference to a sexual act.

Another Wicked Campers van

In February last year, the Queensland government passed a law to deregister Wicked Campers vans that refuse to remove text and images which are in breach of the Advertisers Code of Ethics (the Code), within 14 days.

Tasmania and ACT followed suit in passing similar legislation shortly after Queensland’s move became law.

A spokesperson from Transport and Main Roads Queensland, said in a statement to Mumbrella: “This case has been considered by the Ad Standards Community Panel and was deemed to breach the Code.

“The vehicle’s registration was cancelled on 21 March.

“Following this action, that offensive advertising was removed so we did not follow through with the cancellation.

“It is important to note TMR can only cancel the registration of a vehicle registered in Queensland. Since the introduction of these laws, Queensland has issued one other Registration Cancellation Notice.”

The complaint, which was posted to Ad Standards said the van was “inappropriate for outdoor advertising” and in breach of “the laws passed in QLD 2016”.

Despite Wicked Campers not providing a response to Ad Standards, the advertising has since been taken down.

Just two days ago Wicked Campers had its 79th ruling against a van’s artwork, making this its 80th vehicle to be banned.

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