Honey Birdette breach ad standards again. Westfield must act!

The Ad Standards panel have again determined that Honey Birdette's latest poster is in breach of the advertising code of ethics. The posters have been hanging in major shopping centres around the country in direct view of families and children.

Mumbrella reported that this is the 13th ad that has been banned for Honey Birdette out of 28 rulings meaning nearly half of the ads have breached the code of ethics.

“At a time where sexual assault is increasing in the news, this legitimisation of using woman’s naked bodies to sell underwear is inappropriate. Other manufacturers sell underwear/ lingerie and do not portray woman in this way nor do it in full view of young boys and girls. This is not about an objection to women.

“It is the objection to the sexual objectification of women – it is about opposition to sexism, to corporates who profit from the sexual exploitation of women and have the audacity to claim they are empowering women in the process,” one the complaints continued.

Upholding the complaint, the Board said: “The level of nudity was at the higher end of the scale and the image was highly sexualised and as such the image included on a poster that is
visible to members of the community standing outside the business was not appropriate for the relevant broad audience which would likely include children.”

However despite this ruling Honey Birdette have again gotten away with breaching the advertising code of ethics without consequences. Many Westfield stores have facilitated advertising that is harmful to its customer base. Families should be able to bring their children into a Westfield Shopping centre and feel it is going to be a safe environment for them.

Melbourne father, Kenneth Thor, launched a petition to Westfield Chairman, Brian Schwartz and CEO, Peter Allen calling on them to do more to ensure their centres are family friendly. To date it has over 62,000 signatures.

TAKE ACTION

We are calling on Westfield and the Scentre group to show some corporate social responsibility and urgently introduce basic advertising standards to ensure their tenant’s storefront signage is family-friendly.

Parents, employees and regular customers should be able to walk around a “family-friendly” shopping centre without seeing larger than life pornified posters that would be banned in a standard workplace setting, right?

Today is the time for direct action. By taking 10 minutes today to ring or visit Westfield Centre management we will ensure that our message is received.

Call or email the operator of Westfield – the Scentre Group.

Details here:

Scentre Group Support Office & Switch

Phone: (02) 9358 7000
Address: 85 Castlereagh St, Sydney NSW 2000

You may wish to respectfully express your concerns to Westfield AU CEO Peter Allen [email protected] or the chairperson Brian Schwartz whose secretary is [email protected]

Get on to social media and tweet your disappointment. Don’t forget to tag Westfield @westfieldau and Collective Shout @collectiveshout and use the hashtag #BoycottWestfield

Contact your local Westfield Centre Management about the lack of advertising standards in their Centre. Ring or pop into your local store and make a complaint in person. The stores are listed below.

Please comment on this post with what action you took and what response you received!

Westfield Shopping Centres: