Menswear firm gets battered over domestic violence ad

The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day may be “be bold for change” but discount menswear company Man Savings appears to have tipped the scale too far the other way after running an ad which showed a woman threatening to beat up her man.
The Facebook post featured the photo of a woman raising her fist and standing over a man, who was covering his face with his hands.
Text stated “Stop looking at Adidas trainers. Why can’t you look at porn like a normal husband?”.
One complainant, who believed the ad trivialised domestic violence, challenged whether it was offensive and irresponsible, sparking an investigation by the Advertising Standards Authority.
However, Man Savings failed to respond to the ASA’s enquiries, which drew a stiff rebuke from the watchdog as well as a warning over its responsibilities.
Nevertheless, it carried on its investigation regardless. And, while it acknowledged that the post was intended to be humorous, the ASA ruled that the combination of the image and the text trivialised the serious and sensitive subject of domestic violence in a way that was both irresponsible and likely to cause serious and widespread offence.
The watchdog ruled the ad must not appear again in its current form and warned Man Savings not to use images that were socially irresponsible or likely to cause offence in its advertising. It also referred Man Savings to CAP’s Compliance team.