Collective Shout call for financial penalties for repeat offenders

Honey Birdette are no stranger to the Advertising Standards Board. The sex shop which masquerades as a high end lingerie store in major shopping centres across Australia have repeatedly breached the advertising codes showing little regard for the self regulated system currently operating in Australia. 

We've been writing about Honey Birdette's porn themed advertising since 2011. 

It is hard enough for women to love the skin we're in when we are bombarded daily with advertisements sending us the message we have to be hot, thin and sexy. Pornified images have become the wallpaper of society and too often the media pushes one single narrow stereotype of how women should look. 

Celebrities face an even greater amount of scrutiny, being followed by the paparazzi at every turn, constantly feeling on show and being devoured for simply doing the grocery shopping.

But in a brilliant take down Jennifer Aniston has hit back - penning her own reply to the media on The Huffington Post. 

We have a saying at Collective Shout:

"Silence is the language of complicity, speaking out is the language of change."

And recently Melbourne mum, Melanie Sheppard, refused to be silent after discovering that her daughter had been sexually exploited on social media. 

"It's important for people to be readily aware that among the (online sexual abuse) offending community these images are of significant interest"

Last week we exposed Frilledneck Fashion, a dancewear company posting sexualising images of pre-teen girls on social media. Today ABC News ran a feature on our campaign.

Caitlin Roper, Campaigns Manager spoke to ABC News on adult like poses and styling of girls:

Last night I attended a special preview screening of Taryn Brumfitt's new film Embrace. Throughout the film Taryn travels the world to interview an impressive range of women about their attitudes to their bodies including Adelaide researcher Professor Marika Tiggemann; UK talk show host/photographer Amanda de Cadenet; body confidence activist Harnaam Kaur; motivational speaker Turia Pitt and Collective Shout co-founder Melinda Tankard Reist. 

Last year we exposed global dancewear company California Kisses for posting sexualised images of underage and even pre-teen girls on their Instagram - images that attracted hundreds of comments of a sexual nature from adult men which CK failed to even moderate.

 But it seems the message is not getting through. Yet another dance wear company (which also sells swimwear) is regularly posting sexualised photos of underage girls on its popular social media account. Frilledneck Fashion is an Australian company trading online internationally.

Marketing and advertising is often ruled by sex. We're told "Sex Sells." It's such a long accepted idea that it's almost expected. From Microsoft using it to sell their Xbox to perfume companies to sell fragrances. Sex is even used to sell pizza.

It's a short hand, a lazy marketing technique that says little while showing everything. It’s forced onto products that don’t need it, don’t work with it, and have nothing to do with it, as if the product is almost window dressing, and what they’re really selling is the woman posing on top of it.

But what if the old maxims are wrong? What if the photos of naked or half naked women, sexualized poses and titillation don't sell? What if the preconceptions of advertisers were wrong?

Mad Pizza E Bar don’t have the best marketing. That’s the simplest way to put it. Largely because their approach to getting people through the door looks closer to porn than pizza. From the naked women on the walls of their establishment to the close ups of breasts on their menus to the soft-core posts plastered all over their Facebook page, they don’t seem to spend much time focusing on their product – it’s all about the women posing around it.

So what’s the problem? What’s wrong with using sexualised images in place of a marketing strategy? There’s a bunch of things.

This year advertising agency Badger & Winters made a commitment to never objectify women in their work. Alongside this announcement they also launched their #WomenNotObjects campaign - calling out objectification in advertising, which quickly went global.

This week at Cannes Badger & Winters Chief Creative Officer revealed their latest 'What Our Kids See' video as part of the #WomenNotObjects series.