Diesel’s stupid women poster adverts banned

Two posters from an award-winning advertising campaign for Diesel jeans have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority. One of the outdoor ads featured a woman taking a picture of her genitals while a lion stalks her. Another showed a woman climbing a stepladder to expose her breasts to a CCTV camera.

Last week at the Cannes Lions advertising festival the campaign, titled 'Be Stupid', shared the grand prix for agency Anomaly. But the two posters have now been banned after objections from the public prompted an ASA investigation.

The ASA received 33 complaints about Diesel's posters, which fell into three categories. First that they should not be seen by children, second that they were offensive and third that they encouraged anti-social behaviour.

Diesel defended the ads, saying that the poster featuring a model flashing a surveillance camera used nudity "in a non-exploitative way". They also claimed the poster's message tackled pre-occupation with 24/7 camera surveillance in a light and unthreatening manner.

The company said both posters were "a rallying call to do things differently from the accepted wisdom and to live a life less ordinary"
and "did not contain any provocative nudity beyond the usual amounts shown in many swimwear, sportswear or lingerie ads".

The ASA was not convinced. It said the outdoor ads, which feature the frankly baffling slogans "Smart may have the brains, but stupid has the balls" and "Be stupid", were likely to be seen by children and to cause serious or widespread offence. In particular, it said the fact that the models in both pictures were depicted as photographing or filming their genitals or breasts would cause offence.

The ASA also said it was concerned the ad which shows a model flashing a CCTV camera might encourage copycat antisocial behaviour – though it acknowledged that people were less likely to feel the need to run out and photograph their vaginas while standing in front of big game.

The thought of women across Britain being inspired to expose their breasts in public had certainly appalled some sections of the press.
The Daily Mail observed with horror that "aggressive and drunken women flashing various parts of their bodies in town centres most weekends" is already a common sight in the UK.

Despite the ban, the campaign can continue to run in magazines including Grazia and Dazed & Confused because the ASA considers that people buying such magazines are unlikely to find them offensive.

In fact, there have been no complaints about the magazine versions - perhaps because readers just dismiss them as, well, stupid. ·