A newly registered charity has had a “sexually explicit” advertisement banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
The advert was an outdoor poster for the “Smash the Stigma” campaign from the charity GIRLvsCANCER, seen in October 2023, and featured a close-up image of a woman’s torso, as she held one of her breasts in her hand, with her arm obscuring her other breast.
With the top of the woman’s other hand placed between her legs, large white text the length of the image stated “cancer won’t be the last thing that f*cks me”.
Two complainants challenged whether the advert was likely to cause serious or widespread offence, and whether it was inappropriate for display in an untargeted medium.
Following an investigation, the ASA concluded that the advert was likely to cause serious and widespread offence, and was also inappropriate for display in an untargeted medium where it could be seen by children.
Charity response
The charity said that the ad had intended to represent the real-life experience of women regarding sex and cancer, and the emotions they had experienced.
“They accepted that this might have made some people feel uncomfortable, but did not believe the ad was likely to cause serious or widespread offence,” the ASA stated.
GIRLvsCANCER said that the imagery in the advert had been carefully crafted so that both of the model’s breasts had been covered, and no other body parts beyond her main torso were visible.
The model, and all other models in the wider campaign were cancer survivors or those currently with cancer, who they had worked with to portray their stories in a way which reflected their experiences.
Due to the subject matter depicted in the advert, the poster had not been distributed within 100 metres of a school.
The ASA added: “They did not think the language or images used in the ad had been gratuitous, but rather were relevant to the lived experiences and issues faced by many women with cancer.
“They felt the use of the word ‘f*cks’ was in-keeping with and necessary for the campaign message and creative execution, and re-iterated that the ad had been based on close collaboration with the women whose stories they were conveying.”
Build Hollywood, the media owner, said that the ad had been removed by the time they were made aware of the complaint. They thought that the ad touched on an important topic which was too often perceived to be a taboo subject, and deserved to be highlighted and talked about openly.
Ad banned
The ASA acknowledged that the wording of the advert did not explicitly use the F-word but considered that viewers were likely to understand the word as a reference to the expletive.
It said it acknowledged the charity’s comments that the ad was meant to represent the lived experience of women who had, or who had survived, cancer, and had been created to raise awareness of the subject.
However, it concluded that the ad was likely to cause serious and widespread offence, and was therefore also inappropriate for display in an untargeted medium where it could be seen by children.
The ad must not appear again in the form complained about, and the charity was told to take care to avoid causing serious or widespread offence in future and to ensure their ads were appropriately targeted.
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