The ad watchdog’s war against raunchy posters for OnlyFans has claimed yet another scalp with the regulator forcing model, influencer and porn star Rebecca Louise to rip down a campaign which ran on a busy London road in full sight of children.
The poster, seen in October and November 2023, featured an image of Rebecca Louise’s top half, showing her wearing a shiny red bra top which had several straps and buckles. Alongside the image was the logo of the OnlyFans social media platform and the text “onlyfans.com/rebeccalouise95”. The poster also featured the Instagram logo and the text “@RebeccaLouisex95”.
Two complainants, who understood that OnlyFans was an internet content subscription service which featured sexual adult content, challenged the Advertising Standards Authority whether the ad was inappropriate for display in an untargeted medium.
In response, Rebecca Louise peddled out the standard defence of such activity, insisting she had developed the ad with “careful consideration for potential audiences” and believed it adhered to established advertising guidelines and reflected trends observed in leading brands.
She believed that the image used was not suggestive or harmful, and was less provocative than mainstream ads for lingerie or perfume in outdoor media. She pointed out that the ad had appeared for eight weeks, but had attracted only a small number of complaints.
Louise also argued that the ad was placed with consideration to child safety and not in the vicinity of schools. Louise believed the ad would not appeal to children because it did not feature bright colours, engaging slogans, fun elements or QR codes. She said her audience on social media channels was primarily in the 25 to 44 age bracket, with 65.6% of all followers falling into that category.
Amplify Outdoor, the media owner, said they had not received any complaints directly, adding that they never intended to cause offence, but simply wished to provide a voice to a legitimate business.
However, the ASA took a slightly different point of view.
In its ruling, the watchdog said it considered Louise’s expression, in combination with the styling and her pose, was suggestive and coquettish and would be seen as sexualised and provocative. Although it acknowledged that it formed her social media handle, it considered that impression was further reinforced by the accompanying text RebeccaLouisex95, which included the word “sex”.
It also considered that the combination of the image, the OnlyFans web address and the handle “@RebeccaLouisex95” meant that the ad taken as a whole would be seen as overtly sexual, particularly to those who were familiar with the content of the OnlyFans platform.
When it came to targeting, the ASA said that as the ad was shown on a poster in London close to a main road, which was an untargeted medium, it was likely to be seen by large numbers of people, including under-18s.
Concluding that the ad breached the Code on the grounds of responsible advertising, and harm and offence, the ASA ruled ad must not appear again in its current form and warned Rebecca Louise to ensure that future advertising in outdoor media was not overtly sexual and to avoid causing widespread offence.
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