Oldham-based artificial turf specialist Great Grass has been whacked by the advertising watchdog for the third time for yet another “degrading” poster campaign which “objectified” women, despite claims from the company that most people found it “amusing and memorable”.
The outdoor ad, which first ran in July, featured a woman wearing flesh-coloured underwear and holding a potted plant in front of her crotch, with a headline stating “No trimming needed!” followed by a “wink” emoji.
But one complainant believed the ad was memorable for all the wrong reasons and rifled off a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority, challenging whether it was offensive, harmful and irresponsible.
In response, Great Grass, said the ad had been on display for several months and had been seen by hundreds of thousands of people. The firm insisted that, because there had been only one complaint, most of those who saw it were not offended by the ad.
It said it had in fact received 47 positive comments about it, claimed the ad generated business because people found it amusing and memorable.
Great Grass also believed it was wrong to assume that the person featured in the ad was a woman when it could equally be a man or a transgender person. It said it made no mention of women or sex, nor did it show any obvious female sexual features.
75Media, the media owner, said the ad was already on display when they took over the poster site in July 2024. It said it took the ASA’s concerns very seriously and would remove the ad immediately if it was found to breach the CAP Code.
In response, the ASA acknowledged many people would see the ad as a light-hearted reference to the low-maintenance properties of artificial grass. However, it said it had “considered that the cropped image of a woman in underwear accompanied by text that alluded to pubic hair” had the effect of demeaning and objectifying women by using their genitalia to draw attention to an unrelated product.
The watchdog added: “We considered that the emoji next to the text, which featured a winking face with its tongue out, added to the degrading and mocking tone.”
Ruling the ad was “irresponsible”, “objectified women” and was “likely to cause serious and widespread offence”, the ASA ordered the poster to be ripped down and warned Great Grass about future activity.
However, this is now the third time the firm has run into trouble with the ASA.
In 2016, an ad featuring a close-up image of a woman in a bra under the strapline “real or fake” was also banned as was a 2022 campaign featuring a half-naked woman wearing just a thong, prostrate over the plastic turf, under the headline “Get laid by the best”.
And, no doubt this will not be the last we hear from Great Grass.
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