Charlton Athletic sex tape pounded

Charlton Athletic FC’s attempt to bolster flaccid gate receipts by launching a saucy online ad promoting its pitch hire services has been shown the red card by the ad watchdog.
The ad, which was featured on the Charlton Athletic YouTube channel, was shot in the style of candid CCTV footage, and showed a man and a woman entering the empty stadium late at night and running onto the pitch.
They then appeared to start to have sex in the centre circle and after a few seconds the stadium floodlights suddenly turned on. The woman, whose chest was pixellated, sat up and quickly drew her jacket around her.
The camera drew back to show the stands, which showed the stadium name “The Valley”, and a voice-over then stated “Fancy scoring at The Valley in May? Contact the sales team now to book the pitch for your team.”
One complainant, who believed the ad was sexist and derogatory towards women, and unsuitable for children to view, challenged whether the ad was offensive; and harmful and irresponsibly targeted. The Advertising Standards Authority then launched a probe.
In its defence, the football club’s marketing team said that they did not accept that the activity was sexist or derogatory towards women, and stated that it was not targeted towards children or released onto any children’s platforms.
They said that it was not their intention to cause offence or harm, or to act in an irresponsible manner, and that this had been a purely targeted campaign for a specific audience.
It added that a small extract of the clip that had been shared on Vine had received over 8 million views, and that they had received nine complaints from their season ticket holders. However, they noted that these complainants had gone on to renew their season tickets despite their concerns and this, it claimed, indicated they were not offended or harmed.
YouTube confirmed that it had not received any complaints about the ad directly.
However, the ASA thought differently. Although it agreed that the ad was not degrading or sexist, it ruled that by appearing on the club’s YouTube channel – which had no age restriction – children would be able to view it willy-nilly.
Because of this, the ASA concluded that the ad had been irresponsibly targeted and banned it from appearing in its current form ever again on Charlton’s YouTube channel or other untargeted media.
The regulator also warned the club to ensure that future ads that were unsuitable for viewing by children were appropriately targeted.

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