Telefónica-owned Giffgaff, the SIM-only pay-as-you-go mobile virtual network operator, has been slapped down by the ad watchdog for a Twitter campaign that was linked to a sexually graphic video.
Devised by Fallon, the video is part of the brand’s “We’re all the boss” campaign designed to highlight the freedom that Giffgaff offers its customers. It uses a number of scenarios, including young people jumping off a cliff, pole-dancing, playing video games in a lecture theatre and recording in a studio.
The video in question showed a young man coming home from a jog to his parents house, only to stumble upon them hard at it in the laundry room. It then cut back to the man’s reaction, and then again to the couple, before showing the man walking away looking dazed. During the video panting sounds could be heard.
The video then showed a blank screen, on which text stated: “At home with your parents you’re not the boss … At Giffgaff we’re all the boss.”
But one complainant, who considered that the content was sexually graphic, objected that the ad was likely to cause serious or widespread offence.
In response, Giffgaff stated that the style of the ad was humorous and playful, and that there was no nudity. They also stated that there was a warning at the start of the video that stated “Warning: You cannot unsee this.”
It also claimed that just one complaint “indicated that the offence caused was not widespread of serious” as the ad had been viewed 37,530 times on YouTube at the time.
But the Advertising Standards Authority was less than impressed. It said the characters were clearly having sex, and that despite the lack of nudity the situation depicted was of a strongly sexual nature that would be likely to cause offence in an untargeted medium.
Banning the ad, the ASA warned Giffgaff to ensure that future ads in untargeted media did not contain strongly sexual content.
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Giffgaff nailed for sex video ad http://t.co/lNgfINpOJX #digitalmarketing #socialmedia #directmarketing #advertising