Fashion businesses forced to defend television commercials

The ongoing spectre of indecency in advertising has again reared its conservative head with two fashion businesses being hauled before the Advertising Standards Bureau last month.

Both Bonds and Australian Fashion Week organiser IMG were forced to defend television advertisements created to show off their respective products after complaints the ads were "in poor taste" and "left little to the imagination".
While complaints against both groups were eventually dismissed by the ASB hearings board, the cases reiterate the level of concern in the community about the use of nudity in marketing material.

In the Bonds case, the commercial showed a teenage soccer player "free styling" with a soccer ball. The 17-year-old actor took off his clothes one by one without ever letting the ball touch the ground. With a final flourish he was shown catching the last fall of the ball in the front of his Bonds' underwear.

In calling for a different ending complainants said it was not the type of ad children should be watching. "I feel the male is too young to be almost naked, and placing the ball in his underwear is in poor taste. It is definitely not the type of ad I want my children watching," one complainant noted. Another said the ad may have been funny to an adult but was confusing to children. "He eventually puts the ball in his underwear - it looks like an erect penis. Both my children... questioned why someone would be doing this in public and why would he want his penis to look so big."

In response Bonds said its ad was created to highlight the fact that "blokes just do stuff". The underwear brand said the theme was based on the idea that young male adults find a game in everything - whether it be with coasters in a pub, kicking a can on a beach or in this case showing off their soccer skills.

"The young man featured in the ad is never exposed. He's revealing no less of his body than can be seen on any Aussie beach. We were very careful to ensure there was nothing sensitive revealed in part or in full. It's just a joyful moment of a young man, clearly very good with a soccer ball, showing off his tricks."

In the case of IMG the consumer watchdog group received a number of complaints over an ad promoting the Rosemount Sydney Fashion Festival which was broadcast during the program So You Think You Can Dance on Network Ten. Most of the complaints received by the bureau centred around the fact that one of the models featured in the commercial was wearing a "completely see-through" blouse in which her breasts were visible.

"The model in question is not wearing anything underneath so nothing is left to the imagination. The fact that this was allowed at such an early time slot in my opinion makes it even more unacceptable. I understand that this type of clothing and display of the female form may be acceptable at a fashion show but it is nudity and should not be acceptable in public advertising," one complainant said. However, in response IMG Fashion said the 'PG' classification of the program recommended parental guidance for young viewers.

IMG said the commercial featured a montage sequence from a fashion runway where a woman was "very briefly" depicted wearing a partly-translucent mesh top. It said the image was very discreetly depicted and ran for approximately one third of a second.

"The overall impact is also mitigated by the context - the partial nudity is depicted in the non-sexualised context of a fashion parade where the focus is on clothing design." In dismissing both complaints the ASB noted both commercials were in keeping with the product advertised and did not breach any sections of the Advertiser Code of Ethics.

By Tracey Porter