The argument for ‘lads ads’ seems to be much the same as for ‘lads mags’; they aren’t really offensive, just harmless suggestive fun, a bit of titillation with no real damage intended. This of course is from a male perspective. Talk to most women and the response is more like; they are degrading, humiliating and offensive.

There has been a string of such ads lately, they began with a barrage of airline ads including Air New Zealand, the Russian airline Avianova and Spain’s Air Commet.

Then more recently came the Brut campaign, described by Pharmacare “a body spray deodorant range targeted at male deodorant users in their late teens to early 20s. The principle behind the Code element of Brut Code refers to ‘the amusing codes that friends live by’. An example might be ‘No matter what, two guys should never share an umbrella’.”

So what makes these ‘lads ads’ so offensive and degrading to women?

Well let’s start with the airlines, words that come to mind include raunchy, erotic, risqué, sexist, creepy, soft porn and voyeuristic.

In this day and age how on earth can we allow advertising campaigns that depict female flight attendants washing planes while wearing bikinis? It is like watching an old James Bond movie, which we all know depicts the ‘bond girl’ as a trophy to be won by Bond during the movie.

Then there was Aeroflot’s calendar featuring a female flight attendant posing completely nude. This however was surpassed by Air Comet; their calendar showed staff in various flight-related poses including one in which a woman stretched out on a jet engine clad only in an emergency flotation vest.

Ms Jo-Ann Davidson, Secretary of the Flight Attendants Association of Australia pointed out that raunchy advertisements are offensive and place cabin crew at risk.

“Such suggestive advertising portraying cabin crew as part of the product they’re selling sends wrong messages and puts cabin crew at risk of sexual harassment and abuse – all for a $10 air fare,” she said.

“Cabin crew deserve to work in a safe environment and be treated with respect and dignity.”

Ms Davidson made a very shrewd comment when discussing airline executives; “it’s a sad reflection of the attitude of the airline’s executives – dare I say more than likely middle aged males – towards cabin crew, in particular, female cabin crew by portraying them in such a demeaning, distasteful and irrelevant manner.”

You may be feeling comforted that these airlines are all overseas and that in our part of the world the media is more ideologically sound. But oh no, just take a look at last years’ ads by Air New Zealand. They well and truly took their place among the most offensive ads by showing staff carrying out their duties wearing nothing more than body paint.

Now if we turn our attention back to Brut again. The Brut campaign with its tagline “still brutally male” and the series of “spot and share” ads – a set of amusing codes that friends life by – serve as a thin veneer covering the depiction of women as sex objects to be ‘shared around’ by men.

All the ads use a beautiful woman posing in a T-shirt and bikini. In the online video clips she whips off her T-shirt (not much product shot here, remembering this is an ad for male deodorant) to reveal a code. There is an obvious play on the word ‘reveal’. The double entendre about the ‘revealing’ of the codes is clearly intended to refer to women taking off their tops in addition to ‘revealing what the message of the next code is.

This sends a very strong message to teenage boys and adds to their understanding of how a man should treat a woman. In this case men should view women as nothing more than the sum of their body parts to be ‘spotted’ ‘noted’ and ‘shared’ around. Could this description also be applied the appreciation of soft porn or even gang rape? Surely these ads depict inappropriate role models for young men.

This is how The Advertising Standards Bureau dealt with complaints for one of the poster ads.  The poster features a beautiful blonde woman with her back to the viewer in nothing more than a bikini bottom (no surprises there). The words for the ad reads – BRUT Code #85: Always alert your mates to the presence of fine form. 

The complaint addressed the issues of the sexualisation and objectification of women and the affect this might have on both adolescent boys and girls. “No individual within society should be subjected to such over-sexualised and demeaning images that objectify women.”

“The site where this add is situated is a busy thoroughfare for both primary and high school students all of which are influenced by popular culture and the society that surrounds them. Firstly young women see images in which females are being sexualised and objectified for the means of appealing to the male audience – thus creating the view that a woman’s body is her only asset. These ads also affect young boys as they are sent the message that women are simply objects for their own pleasure.”

In their defence Pharmacare said “using attractive people in adverts is very common practice and in no way does this objectify or demean women.” They dispute that the ad is “overtly sexually suggestive” by arguing that the woman in the ad was smiling and looked happy.

The Advertising Standard Bureau (‘the Board’) decided “that the advertisement did treat sex, sexuality and nudity with sensitivity to the relevant audience and that the advertisement did not breach section 2.3 of the Code.” They went on to determine that “the general community would find the portrayal of the women acceptable in the media utilised” and concluded  “finding that the advertisement did not breach the Code on any grounds the Board dismissed the complaints.”

In an ironic twist, The Board was quick to come down on the ads where health and safety issues were concerned.

“The board considered that as the vehicle is depicted in motion the depiction of the person in the boot and the person sitting on the car rather than in a seat is a depiction of material that does breach community standards on safety in vehicles and safe driving.”

Finally in its deliberation the board wrote: “The board considered that the overall theme of the advertisement is light-hearted and is specifically directed to depicting men who appreciate the beauty of a woman.”

It added: “The board considered that the song ‘spot and share’ does not imply sexual behaviour … and that the song and language are not suggestive of rape.”

It is very neglectful of our society to encourage teenage boys to view girls in this way. It is a view that they will take into adulthood and it will undoubtedly be reflected in the way they treat women in the future.

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald.  The Advertising Standards Bureau