Soft drink brand Sparkling OH have attracted complaints for their ads featuring pieces of fruit arranged to resemble women’s breasts, complete with erect nipples. The image is accompanied by text referencing the deliberately suggestive nature of the image, “not as guilty as it looks”. 

Content Warning: Some content including in this post may be distressing, but it is content the ASB is promoting to your children.

If an adult gave your child a Hustler magazine, what would you do? Perhaps contacting the police might be an appropriate response.

But what if the adult was the Advertising Standards Board, and the pornographic magazine was the address for a hardcore porn website, complete with prostitution services featuring young women engaging in live sex shows, including being penetrated with objects?

Several weeks ago, I made a complaint to the Advertising Standards Board about an ad on the side of a bus featuring the website for a hardcore porn site. After waiting a few weeks for their response, during which time the ad remained in place, the ASB advised me they had already dismissed complaints for this particular advertisement. They found the image was not in breach of the code. I immediately wrote back and asked if they could re-open the discussion given the content of my complaint had not mentioned the image, but the promotion of a porn site.

Last week Collective Shout had the privilege of attending the first inaugural Australian Summit Against Sexual Exploitation (ASASE).

In attendance were politicians, NGOs, activists, survivors of sexual exploitation and other community leaders.

There’s an old saying that sex sells. While some bad ads do objectify women to sell beer or web domain registration services, the following commercials aren’t actually selling sex. Instead, they seem to be testing a new theory: Sexism sells.

The makers of these ads are banking on two flawed assumptions: First, they believe that all of their customers are men. Second, they believe that all men either disrespect or actively resent women.

Writing for ABC Religion and Ethics, Melinda Tankard Reist has called out the lack of action from the Australian government on sexist advertising. 

What is the point of government-funded programs in schools to teach boys how to respect girls, while the government remains complacent in a broader culture that is wallpapered with images that teach them disrespect?

We're pleased to report that after years of campaigning against Wicked Campers for their sexist and anti-women slogans and imagery, Tasmania's Legislative Council has voted to deregister offending vehicles. 

Paris has taken the progressive step to ban sexist and discriminatory outdoor advertising in a bid to combat harmful gender stereotypes and men’s violence against women.

Shopping ethically is rewarding but it can be a challenge at times! When it comes to ethical practices there are various aspects to consider - slave labour, humane treatment of animals, impact on the environment. But what about ‘sexploitation’- when companies use sexism and objectify women to sell products and services? Many of us choose not to financially support exploitative companies- should this extend to companies who sexually exploit women in their advertising?

“Advertising is a very powerful educational force. Advertising’s influence is quick, cumulative, and for the most part, it’s subconscious. Ads sell more than products. They sell values, they sell images, they sell concepts of love and sexuality, of success, and perhaps most important, a sense of normalcy. To a great extent they tell us who we are and who we should be.” – Jean Kilbourne, Killing Us Softly 4 

It’s 2016, and yet women’s bodies are still being used to sell everything from beer to burgers to organ donation.

Hyper-sexualised representations of women in advertising and mainstream media are everywhere, whether it is women posed as passive, decorative objects, being reduced to a collection of sexualized body parts, being defined by their sexual availability, or even depicted as victims of violence- but what does this mean for women and girls?

When women’s value is determined by how hot they are and what they can offer to men sexually, this isn’t a good thing for women. When women are reduced to sexual objects, when their value is based on their physical beauty and sexuality to the exclusion of other characteristics, skills and attributes, this harms women. This objectification is at the roots of many forms of gendered oppression, such as sexual harassment, abuse, discrimination and violence against women. It reinforces women’s status as second-class citizens rather than intelligent, valued people with something real to contribute to the world and as such, undermines gender equality.

“Sex sells” is the all too common refrain, but it’s not really sex that is being sold- we’re not seeing men objectified and subjugated in these same ways. What is really being sold is the sexual objectification and subordination of women, and this should be cause for concern. It is worth noting also that research by the American Psychological Association concluded that sex does not actually sell, that it does not help brand memory- it either has no effect in marketing or it hurts. 

Yet given all this, advertisers continue to use sexploitation to flog products. Sure, it’s lazy, lacks creativity, potentially alienates at least half of their potential consumer base and indicates a lack of confidence in the merits of their product. As the saying goes ‘If your product was any good you wouldn’t need sexism to sell it’.

At Collective Shout, we call on advertisers, marketers, media and corporations to be better. We believe that companies have a responsibility to act ethically and to exercise corporate social responsibility to act in the best interests of women and girls. We even have our own Corporate Social Responsibility Pledge that we invite ethically minded companies to sign up to, pledging to not sexualize girls and objectify women to sell products and services.

In the lead up to Christmas we release our annual ‘Crossed Off’ list a blacklist of corporate offenders who sexualized girls and objectified women to promote themselves during the year. We encourage our supporters to vote with their wallets and refuse to financially support companies that sexually exploit women for profit- see also our Brands page for a more comprehensive list. 

It’s time to hold these companies accountable for their treatment of women, and show them that sexploitation does not sell. Join us at www.collectiveshout.org to be part of our movement. If you are part of a company that values women and girls, sign up to our Corporate Social Responsibility Pledge today! 

If you are looking for legal services in the Brisbane area you may want to give Logan Law a miss. Their sexist advertising has lead to complaints to the Advertising Standards Board, who have subsequently dismissed the complaints. (Probably because there is nothing in the code of ethics to address sexism) 

One of their advertisements is a Faceboook post for legal services offered by Logan Law using innuendos relating to having a vehicle hit another vehicle from behind with hashtags such as "#steveo #hollyweed #loganlaw #smashedhardfrombehind #coppedoneinthebumper #beenrearendedlately #penetratingbrisbane #takenoneinthetailpipe".

The complainant said: 

The majority of Logan Law's advertising has extreme sexual connotations and this is not limited to their Facebook posts, this also includes billboards seen around Brisbane which are promoted in an incredibly unprofessional manner. I find their advertising highly inappropriate.