ASA bans ad over sexual violence implication
A press advertisement for a luxury tile maker that showed a distressed woman with her thighs exposed has been banned for condoning sexual violence.
The Advertising Standards Authority says the ad for Bizazza mosaic tiles had caused “serious offence” because it could “imply that sexual violence has taken place or was about to take place”.
The ad, which ran in high-end magazines including Elle Decorations and Wallpaper, featured a visibly upset woman with Geisha hair bound with rope and lying on her side with her Kimono ridden up to expose her thighs.
Bisazza argued that the “artistic and beautiful” images featured no nudity, innuendo, wounds “or scenes of excessive perversion”.
Elle Decorations says the ads were “arresting but acceptable in their allusions to the Japanese photographer who took the photos and in the context of modern art”.
The ASA dismissed a number of separate complaints about two further executions in the campaign.
One ad showed a woman with a submissive expression bound across the shoulders and waist with rope, while another saw her bound across the torso.
The watchdog ruled that it either condoned sexual violence against women or were likely to cause serious offence.
