Sultry landlord ad falls foul of ASA

A lettings agency which tried to stand out from the crowd by using a pouting and sultry topless model to woo potential landlords has had its knuckles rapped by the ad watchdog for objectifying women.
The Bournemouth company, Aquisitive (sic), maintained the ad – which stated “Landlords would you like to get this level of exposure” and showed a side-view of the model’s breasts – was simply tongue in cheek.
The firm even claimed that before approving the ad for display it had tested it on staff, tenants and landlords to obtain their opinion, and the image had in fact been chosen by a committee of their female staff members, adding that it felt the image was a “very tasteful shot of a beautiful woman in a coy type of pose”.
It went on to say it considered that the image was “demure and subtle” compared to the manner and state of dress of some women who walked to Bournemouth beach during the summer months and that there were many more inappropriate images to be seen on a Friday and Saturday night.
However, the Advertising Standards Authority was not impressed. Although it did acknowledge the ad did not feature explicit nudity, by using an image of a nude woman to draw attention to the ad, and inviting consumers to view her image solely from the perspective of her level of ‘exposure’, the image objectified women.
Ruling the ad was likely to cause serious or widespread offence and therefore breached the code, it warned Aquistive not to run the poster again in its current form.

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