A cosmetic surgery company has been slapped down hard by the ad watchdog over an Instagram campaign promoting so-called designer vaginas – including one package dubbed the “Barbie Pussy” – despite claims that the phrase was designed to provide “comfort” for women.
Two Instagram posts in August and the All Dolled Up’s website included the name of the cosmetic surgery package accompanied by the sparkling heart emoji, and hashtags such as “barbiepussy”, “perfect pussy”, “designervagina”, and “affordableprices”.
They described cosmetic surgery packages with names including “peachy package”, “camera ready”, and “forever young”, while other phrases included “itzy-bitzy waist” and “the highly desired dolly nose style”.
Each package name was accompanied by a different emoji such as “the peach”, “the hair flick” and “the unicorn”.
The promotion offered a group discount for customers, accompanied by a caption which contained two emojis of two women holding hands and various hashtags including “bootygains” and “here to help”.
Following a complaint that the ads were irresponsible, offensive and trivialised the decision to have cosmetic surgery, the Advertising Standards Authority launched an investigation.
In response, All Dolled Up claimed it had taken on board the concerns raised and that all proper channels would have been followed for any customer, which included a consultation and assessment with a surgeon.
The company said the package names were intended to provide “comfort” for women who had made serious and informed decisions, which they considered to be not dissimilar to the term “yummy mummy”.
However, the ASA was having none of it. It said the tone, including the emojis and hashtags, were likely to detract from the seriousness of the surgery offered such as breast augmentation and liposuction, while the phrases “Barbie Pussy”, “perfect pussy” and “designer vagina” presented the procedures as “aspirational” and “fashionable”.
In its ruling, the ASA said: “Given the nature of the procedures we further considered that the phrases risked encouraging women to view their labia and vagina as abnormal.
“We also considered that the presentation of the phrase “Barbie Pussy” with the accompanying hashtag and emoji was likely to appeal especially to young women and teenage girls. We considered that the inclusion of emojis and a cartoon logo emphasised the frivolous tone of the ad. We therefore considered that the package names and descriptions trivialised the serious nature of the cosmetic surgery.”
Ruling that the ads were harmful and irresponsible, and likely to cause serious or widespread offence, the ASA banned the campaign from appearing again in its current form.
It added: “We told All Dolled Up to ensure their service was advertised in a socially responsible way and did not contain anything that was likely to cause serious or widespread offence.”
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