The sexist ads endorsed by Ad Standards
Does Ad Standards have a problem with women?
Read moreWhy is Ad Standards protecting advertisers which objectify women?
Ad Standards' bizarre ruling on sexual harassment ad
Read more“It makes my job harder”: Flight attendant responds to Honey Birdette pornified ad campaign
“It's not empowering or uplifting, but rather just reinforcing negative stereotypes and negative attitudes towards women in the airline industry.”
[UPDATE] More Cabin Crew come forward
Read moreAd Standards gives green light to Honey Birdette “ultimate bondage babe” Instagram image
Ad Standards still failing to grasp the concept of sexual objectification
Read moreSpeaking out against the exploitation of women and children: Collective Shout cited in NSW Modern Slavery Act report
Report cites Collective Shout and Movement Director Melinda Tankard Reist
Following its 2019 Inquiry into the Modern Slavery Act 2018 and Associated Matters, the New South Wales Legislative Council tabled its final report last month. The Act makes new provisions regarding child sexual exploitation material through the addition of the following offenses to the NSW Crimes Act 1900:
a new aggravated offence in relation to using a child to produce child abuse material, and a new offence of providing information to assist a person to avoid detection for a child abuse material offence.
We welcomed these new provisions which will strengthen capacity for holding offenders to account for sex abuse crimes committed against children.
The report contained several references to Collective Shout’s submission and evidence presented by Movement Director Melinda Tankard Reist who appeared for us at the Inquiry hearing last November, including the following quote from our submission:
New South Wales law must ensure that any person who is facilitating such horrific acts as the abuse on demand of babies and other young children, wherever the abuse might be occurring, through a digital platform operating in or accessed from New South Wales, is subject to an offence, whether the person administering or assisting to administer the digital platform does so intending it be used for that purpose or after becoming aware that it is being used for that purpose fails to take all reasonable steps to prevent that use.
Contrary to our recommendations against watering down the Act in relation to digital platforms the amended Bill now excludes the previously proposed new criminal offence of administering a digital platform used to deal with child abuse material. Conflicts between Federal and State law was cited by the committee. Several contributors to the Inquiry objected to this deletion, noting that its inclusion was stronger than the provisions of Commonwealth legislation to hold digital platforms and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) accountable for hosting child sex abuse material. We shared concerns that its exclusion will provide loopholes for such offenders. As Melinda Tankard Reist pointed out at the hearing:
The child victim is a part of the slavery supply chain. Combating modern slavery has to include combating the global epidemic of this pay-per-view torture of children in the growing trade of predators commissioning the live sexual abuse of a child viewed via their computer screens and facilitated by their ISPs. ISPs and telcos including Telstra, Optus, iiNet and TPG are providing the infrastructure for the live streaming of the abuse of children to be possible. ISPs are part of a chain which contributes to the distribution of child sexual exploitation material but they have not been brought to account.
Melinda Tankard Reist at the Inquiry hearing, 4 November 2019
In her verbal evidence, MTR commended other contributors to the Inquiry, including International Justice Mission Australia (IJM) and the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Australia (CATWA), as well as the expert advice of UK Anti-Slavery Commissioner Kevin Hyland. We were pleased to see Hyland’s six-point strategy for ending modern slavery featured in the report, which highlights the need for all nations to mandate - through legislation - a child-exploitation - and human-trafficking-free internet, as well as the outcomes of the proposed legislation which, according to Hyland, include “leading businesses into generating ethical profits free from exploitation and modern slavery”. We anticipate this outcome will have positive consequences for the broader community - women and girls particularly who stand to benefit from corporates who are unwilling to profit from exploitative activities.
While not mentioned in the Final Report, we noted CATWA’s significant observation that the Act’s proposed minimum $50 million annual turnover threshold for mandatory supply chain reporting will fail to capture agents of the sex industry - an industry in which women are at greatest risk of trafficking and slavery. In its submission CATWA concluded:
A requirement for sex industry businesses to report would be a first step in the fight against modern slavery.
We strongly support this recommendation and would advocate for its inclusion in any future amendments.
Read our full submission to the Inquiry here.
Read the full Parliamentary Hearing transcript here.
Read the NSW Legislative Council's final report here.
See also:
Pay Per View Torture: Why Are Australian Telcos and ISPs Enabling a Child Sexual Abuse Pandemic?
Tech companies turn a blind eye to child sexual abuse material
Collective Shout’s submission to the Modern Slavery Bill 2018 (Provisions)
Australian Modern Slavery Act must tackle sexual exploitation
Slavery is real and we will fight it, says NSW parliament
Read more
Why is the sex industry allowed to advertise to my kids?
Yesterday I took two of my children into town for ice cream. This is what they were exposed to on a busy Perth street.
Read more“Trashy and exploitative”: Adelaide MP calls out strip club ad in CBD
*Update* A prominent city strip club has been ordered by City of Adelaide to remove an offending advertising screen following complaints
South Australian MP Frank Pangallo has called out a porn-themed video advertisement being broadcast in Adelaide’s CBD.
The video, which was broadcast during the day in the CBD, is an advertisement for strip club The Firm.
Mr Pangallo said the advertisement should be banned or moved from public view:
"Council seem to jump immediately on traders who may have inadvertently breached outdoor or indoor seating/dining regulations but here they are turning a blind eye to blatant sexploitation and soft porn on one of our most prominent boulevards and tourist precincts."
City of Adelaide associate director of planning and development Shanti Ditter said that the council does not approve advertising content, and recommended complaints be directed to Ad Standards.
However, Ad Standards continually fails to be effective. Ad Standards regularly dismisses complaints against sexist and sexually objectifying advertising because there is "no explicit nudity", and permits sex industry venues to advertise pornography and prostitution to children on the basis that the advertising is "relevant to the product". The advertising industry has proven time and again it cannot be trusted to regulate itself. This is what industry self-regulation looks like- a strip club broadcasting video in the CBD during the day to an audience that will likely involve children.
Thank MP Frank Pangallo on Twitter here or Facebook here
See also:
Ad Standards uphold complaints over sexist Kittens Car Wash billboard
Ad Standards has upheld complaints over a prominent Kittens Car Wash billboard in Melbourne, where sleazy men pay women in g-string bikinis to feign interest in them wash their cars.
A complaint made to Ad Standards read as follows:
It’s sexist and degrading to women. It encourages the notion that women’s bodies are for the sexual gratification of men. It’s in a highly visible area where families with children (including myself) pass by every day. It’s also primarily there to promote the associated strip club and as such is advertising sexual services in a prominent public position. It is demeaning and overtly sexual for a company who only wash cars. The workers wear bikinis to wash your car but the billboard is also to promote the strip club also called Kittens. It is on a prominent corner of a high traffic area.
Ad Standards considered the complaint, noting that the woman’s body was being used as an object to advertise the service. The panel found that the advertisement was in breach of Section 2.2 of the code which states: “Advertising or marketing communications should not employ sexual appeal in a manner which is exploitative or degrading of any individual or group of people.”
The panel also considered the woman’s pose was “seductive and highly sexualised”, finding it was in breach of Section 2.4 of the code, which requires advertisers to treat sex, sexuality and nudity with sensitivity to the relevant audience.
Kittens Car Wash has a long history of using sexist and sexually objectifying imagery to advertise their sexist business. The ‘Kittens School of Striptease’ bus advertisement sat on the corner of a major intersection in Melbourne in full view of traffic parked next to a bikini carwash. After Ad Standards upheld complaints against it in 2010, Kittens continued to use the same image on a number of different vehicles. Read more.
See also:
Sexist and outdated: Kittens Carwash pays women to wash cars in bikinis
Ad Standards Board bans Kittens Carwash Striptease bus ad
Kittens Car Wash comes under fire from feminists for paying its female workers to clean vehicles wearing nothing more than bikinis and g-strings- Daily Mail