WIN: Investor dumps Playboy after our campaign
Trinity Financial Advisors has dumped all Playboy shares following our call to divest from the pornography empire. The Ohio-based company first reported ownership of Playboy stock - 22k shares - in June 2024.
Read moreAustralian Playboy arm shuts shop – now tell THESE retailers to bin the bunny!
We are pleased to learn that Playboy Clothing ANZ has shut down its website. The official distributor of licensed Playboy apparel for Australia and New Zealand previously supplied popular youth retailers including City Beach and Culture Kings with its porn branded merchandise.
Read moreObjectifying women isn’t “promoting autonomy”: We respond to Honey Birdette gaslighting
The sex store can throw out words like “strength”, “confidence” and “autonomy” all they want (sounds like someone has been using a thesaurus!) but it doesn’t make them true
After two more porn-themed ads upheld by Ad Standards, sex store defends its objectification of women for profit
Ad Standards has upheld complaints against two more porn-themed ads by Playboy-owned sex store Honey Birdette, with complaints now upheld against more than 80 separate ads.
A local community member made a complaint to Ad Standards over two different ads at Lakeside Joondalup, one featuring a woman in sheer lingerie pulling down her bra strap, and the other featuring a woman in sheer lingerie reclining while pushing her breasts together. Read the case report here.
Read morePorn themed ads which present women as objects to an audience that includes children. We are battling a scourge of violence against women and sexual grooming of children. I object to this company contributing to a culture which normalises these harms in my community.
Call to Action: #BoycottSpotlight for trivialising violence against women
Spotlight fails to pull pimp costumes from stores - it's time to #BoycottSpotlight
More than a month ago, we called out crafts and fabric store Spotlight for selling pimp costumes.
Pimps control women and girls in commercial sexual exploitation, often through physical violence and abuse. They sell vulnerable women and girls to other men for paid sexual abuse and take a cut (or all) of their earnings.
While the company quietly removed the costumes from its online store, they continue sell them in stores - even during their Book Week promotion, alongside Harry Potter, Disney and Spiderman costumes.
Read moreRepeat Offender Honey Birdette's new porn-themed ad breaches takes it to record 74
Three breaches in one month for Playboy sex shop
Ad Standards has issued rulings on a new set of pornified Honey Birdette shop window ads after a series of community complaints. The decisions came just weeks after Honey Birdette attracted its 70th ad violation for breaching the Australian Association of National Advertisers Code of Ethics.
Read moreHey Walmart: Stop flogging Playboy merch!
Recently, we discovered well-known and respected American family brand Walmart selling Playboy merchandise. Its e-commerce platform, walmart.com, has over 1000 listings for Playboy branded products including costumes, clothing, fragrances and jewelry.
Read moreWIN: Shareholders dump Playboy after our calls to divest
*Content warning
Six investment firms have (quietly) sold off their Playboy shares after our calls to divest from the global porn empire. They are:
Read moreSuper Sexploitation Scorecard: How 'ethical' is your super fund?
Koala protection trumps safety of women and girls
Last year, we wrote again to a number of super funds invested in sex shop Honey Birdette's landlord shopping centres. We first raised our concerns with them in 2019, and called on them to divest from companies which hosted Honey Birdette's harmful, objectifying, porn-themed ads in their family-friendly shopping centres - read more here.
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