ASA ruling exposes how easily kids can view explicit ads

The ad watchdog has laid bare the difficulties of keeping children safe online following a ruling over an “offensive and harmful” ad for a US-based professional photographic studio which popped up in the search results for eBay UK.

The ad for Glamour Shots appeared under the headline “A21Voluptuous Busty Model”, and showed a full-length image of a woman with a very large bust, wearing a top which exposed most of her breasts, followed by pricing information.

It was displayed in a carousel of results delivered following a Google search for “eBay UK”, although triggered just one complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority.

The complainant, who believed the ad sexually objectified women, challenged whether it was offensive and irresponsible; and appropriately targeted.

According to the Glamour Shots website, the company offers “in- and outdoor family portraits, children’s photography, senior pictures, as well as our popular boudoir and pin-up sessions”. However, it only operates in the US.

The business, which can trace its roots back to the late 1960s, failed to respond to the ASA investigation.

And despite the ad running on its site, eBay pointed the finger firmly at affiliate marketing agency Genie Ventures, which confirmed it had acted on behalf of the ecommerce giant, promoting products via Google Shopping based on product feeds provided by eBay.

The agency stated that, because of the high number of products in eBay’s catalogue, ad selection was fully automated and was not reviewed manually. Because of that, the explicit ad was inadvertently shown.

Genie did accept that the ad breached CAP Code rules on harm and offence, acknowledging that the imagery and language were inappropriate and likely to cause offence. The agency also accepted responsibility for the failure and agreed that the ad did not meet the standards of social responsibility as it appeared in an untargeted environment without appropriate safeguards.

Following the complaint, Genie said it had carried out a full audit of its product filtering and ad-serving systems, and had updated its processes to block sexually explicit or adult content.

It is not clear why these filters were not already been in place.

For its part, Google Ireland also laid the blame squarely at the door of the affiliate marketing company, stating that it was Genie’s responsibility to abide by applicable laws and regulations, including the CAP Code under the terms the agency had agreed to.

It stated that all shopping ads must comply with the general Google ad policies and the specific shopping ad policies, including in relation to “adult content” and “non-family safe” content.

Google insisted it does not show shopping ads containing permissible “adult content” on its general search results pages, but may show shopping ads containing permissible “Non-family safe” content if the user had SafeSearch turned off.

In its ruling, the ASA berated Glamour Shots for its lack of response and apparent disregard for the advertising code and reminded the firm of its responsibility to respond promptly to enquiries and told it to do so in the future.

Concluding that the ad was likely to cause serious offence and included a gender stereotype in a way that was likely to cause harm, the ASA ruled it was not suitable to be featured in any paid-for search ad.

Ultimately the watchdog banned the ad and warned Glamour Shots that it must ensure future activity does not feature content which is likely to cause offence or harm.

However, eBay, Genie Ventures and Google escaped any action.

One industry source said: “This case shows how easy it is for this sort of explicit content to get through the net, as the processes are all so automated. Neither eBay nor Google have accepted any responsibility – or even apologised. They simply blame the affiliate marketing agency for breaching their policies. But if ‘adverts’ like this can get through so easily, what else are children being exposed to?”