World 'moved on' from Ultra Tune misogyny
At last! After eight LONG years of Collective Shout campaigning, car service company Ultra Tune has dumped its sexist ads which objectified and demeaned women.
From The Age (August 17, 2022):
The company confirmed it had retired its “Unexpected Situations” commercials and associated marketing after a change in direction over the past two years.
“The world has moved on and so has Ultra Tune,” the spokesman said.
Ultra Tune has a long history of degrading women in its ads, routinely portraying them as brainless sex objects. It even cast its female bimbo-esque characters alongside Mike Tyson and Charlie Sheen - despite rape and domestic violence convictions against the men.
Without a doubt, our advocacy helped bring this marketing campaign to a close.
Check out some of our campaign highlights below.
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SLAMMED! Sexist Ultra Tune ad broadcast during women’s tennis condemned - read more here
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Collective Shout calls on Tennis Australia to end sexist Ultra Tune sponsorship - read more here
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Sexism, plastic surgery pressure, strip clubs and other reasons to boycott Ultra Tune - read more here
These ads during the tennis aren’t just stupid and annoying, they’re straight up sinister. @UltraTuneAust hired a convicted rapist and woman basher to front it’s sexist ad campaign. If you love and respect women, boycott #UltraTune ! #ausopen #AusOpen2018 pic.twitter.com/ANsUJIp8qm
— Melinda (@MelLiszewski) January 28, 2018
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Collective Shout calls on Immigration Minister to revoke serial abuser Charlie Sheen's visa - read our open letter here
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Why is a rapist fronting a major TV campaign?
“Why is a rapist fronting a major TV campaign?”
— Melinda (@MelLiszewski) January 28, 2018
Here’s a follow up question: “what does hiring a rapist and woman basher like Mike Tyson say about the men who run @UltraTuneAust ?”#ultratune #misogyny https://t.co/UyNSdV7dUr
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New year...same old sexist rubbish from UltraTune
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Ultra Tune: out of tune on sexism
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Collective Shout backs UltraTune petition
Franchisees speak out
Roland Rahlinger ended his involvement with Ultra Tune last month, after operating a franchise for more than 20 years.
“They never told us what they were spending the money on. We never had any control. They would just say these are our new ads,” he said.
“But I had a lot of customers who had the shits with the commercials. They were saying: ‘What’s with these rubber girls? It’s all just so sexist.’ ”
Steve Jermyn ran an Ultra Tune franchise in the NSW city of Nowra for a decade before ending his association in May. He strongly opposed the company’s controversial “rubber girls” campaign.
“It’s just disgusting. I came from a corporate background with Hewlett-Packard and I knew what he was doing was wrong, but as a franchisee you had no input,” he said.
“We had no say on where the money was being spent, but one of the main complaints to Ultra Tune, certainly over the first seven years, was the advertising. When they had Mike Tyson [in a commercial] I had a woman come in the front door and she screamed, ‘How dare you have a convicted rapist as your marketing person.’
Maxim deal exposed
Emails from 2019 and 2020 obtained by The Age detail conversations between the Australian publisher of men’s magazine Maxim and Ultra Tune employees, who discussed fees to be paid by the auto company so their “brand ambassadors” would appear in the magazine.
According to the emails, the $120,000 annual deal included advertising and saw a number of girls featured on the covers of Maxim and in the magazine’s annual “Hot 100” list.
In March 2020, the marketing agency contracted by Ultra Tune emailed the publisher of Maxim in Australia, saying he had been tasked by the company’s marketing committee to “provide greater accountability for all marketing expenditure”.
Read the full article here.
Good riddance to Ultra Tune's degrading, sexist ads. And thanks for sticking with us - we're pleased to call this a win after so many years!
See also
Sexploitation of women in sport
Maxim's Hot 100 list an insult to women - MTR quoted in Daily Mail
Ad Standards endorses Honey Birdette's tennis-upskirting ads
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