Steamy mobile ad spanked by ASA

A TV spot for mobile handset company Kazam – which featured a woman slinking around a house in her undies – has been battered by the ad watchdog for objectifying women.
The ad, by Ogilvy & Mather, aimed to showcase “the world’s slimmest phone,” Kazam’s Tornado 348. It opened with the shot of the woman wearing just her underwear, walking around a house. The ad cut to a scene where she ran her finger down her cleavage, bit her lip then moved her hand over her thigh.
She then picked up and put on a pair of jeans and the camera showed her buttoning them up. The ad then cut to a close-up of her bum. She then picked up a shirt which she ironed and a close-up showed the iron moving over the pocket. After she put the shirt on a mobile phone was heard ringing. She searched her jeans pockets before finding it in the shirt pocket. A voice-over stated: “Introducing the world’s slimmest phone.”
The ad sparked eight complaints, which claimed the commercial was “overtly sexual and objectified women, because the content bore no relationship to the advertised product”.
In response, Kazam maintained its innocence, claiming the ad was actually playing to the idea that the phone was so slim it could easily be forgotten if it were left in a shirt pocket. The spot was meant to play out what Kazam described as the “well-known scenario” (ironing your shirt in your underwear before you go out) but with the added twist that the phone was so slim, the model didn’t realize she was ironing over it.
It also said it was careful to ensure the ad was only broadcast during TV shows appropriate to the “tongue-in-cheek” nature of the ad, and shows that were unlikely to be viewed by children.
Unimpressed, the Advertising Standards Authority criticised the fact that the ad focused almost entirely on the actor in her underwear and the sexually suggestive nature of the spot was heightened by the music, all of which had little to do with the Kazam Tornado 348.
Concluding that it was likely to cause “serious offence” to some viewers, on the basis that it objectified women, the ASA banned the spot from appearing again in its current form and warned the company about future activity.

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