The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) scolded one of the brands of the gaming operator ProgressPlay for an offensive promotional tweet posted on September 8th, 2017.
The tweet displayed a picture of several women dressed in swimwear and text, saying “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig. #LooseWomen18”. The person who filed the complaint challenged the advert, calling it offensive due to the fact it showed disrespect to women.
The operator Progress Play made an apology for possible offence that may have been caused by the tweet and revealed that the latter was posted by the Fruity King Casino brand’s operator which is one of the company’s licensees.
ProgressPlay Response
Apart from revealing that the tweet was published by one of its licensees, ProgressPlay also shared that it reached the Fruity King Casino brand operator to understand why the tweet publication was made and its context, too. The operator also told the licensee to take down the tweet immediately and not to use it any more.
In its response to ProgressPlay, the brand operator shared its belief that the tweet did not intended as demonstration of disrespect to women, stating that the picture and the text together were not offensive to women. It also claimed that the promotional tweet was meant to direct the attention to a certain daytime TV show as a program of low quality. In other words, the brand operator explained that the text made a reference to the program and not to the female presenters displayed in the photo who appeared in the show.
ProgressPlay then responded to the Advertising Standards Authority, saying the explanation given by the brand operator did not lack some logic and reasoning, and reiterated that the advert was not meant to offend women, but only to refer to a certain TV show. Still, the operator shared that the tweet could be taken as offensive and explained that it reminded to its brand operator that it needs to carefully review all advertising materials before publishing them.
ASA Actions
After the complaint was filed and the Advertising Standards Authority investigated the issue, the promotional tweet immediately suffered backlash from the Authority. As mentioned above, the complainant called the tweet outrageous, challenging it to the competent regulator. The person who filed the complaint also called the post sexist and said that it was likely to be considered offensive.
The Advertising Standards Authority upheld the complaint, as it considered that the text displayed along the picture shown in the tweet as was aimed specifically at the women who were displayed, ridiculing them. This is why the regulatory body believed that the picture and the text together were disrespectful to women and concluded that they were likely to lead to widespread offence among women in general.
The ASA ruled that the promotional tweet breached rule 4.1 of the CAP Code and suspended the tweet commercial, saying it would not be displayed in its current form again. The watchdog also reminded to Progress Play that the operator needs to make sure that its advertising is not offensive and does not demonstrate disrespect to women.
- Author
Olivia Cole
