ASA Draws the Line at Spitting

Philip Stone July 7, 2005

When it comes to advertising, spitting is a partial no; masturbation is a definite no-no; but when it comes to explaining the evils of smoking, a verbal kick right where it hurts the most is perfectly OK

The British Advertising Standard Authority (ASA) recently ruled that singing with your mouth full of fried chicken was ok for television advertising even though the ad drew the highest number of complaints in ASA history for showing anti-social behavior. But ASA has drawn the line at spitting. It has told Fanta its ads showing spitting could only be televised after 9 p.m. when hopefully young children won’t see it.

ASA said it did not believe most adults seeing the ad would be repulsed or sickened by the spitting, but it admitted spitting is considered anti-social behavior and that parents would not want their children copying the habit, so the ad was banned until after the kids should be in bed.

So if spitting is likely to cause offense to the young then it’s a good thing kids don’t buy Glamour magazine. Accurist, the watch company, recently ran an ad showing a naked woman reclining in a chair with her left hand on her stomach with her fingers roaming into body areas which one might simply call “private”. The catch line was “Me Time” and seemingly was meant to imply that a woman had time during the day to do many things besides working and looking after the family.

One Glamour reader complained the ad was offensive and demeaning to women and ASA agreed, saying it was sexually suggestive and could well cause widespread distress.

Accurist responded by removing the woman’s hand from her stomach and agreed not run the ad again in Glamour.

But when it comes to sex, the UK government has just launched a hard-hitting campaign aimed at the young by warning in no uncertain terms that smoking is bad for your sex life. It basically tells the young that those who smoke can expect poor sexual performance, that smoking can make you ugly, and you can lose your fertility.

Actually the government is getting pretty smart here. It figures young people don’t pay much attention to health warnings, but they may well pay attention when it comes to how they are in bed. Smoking, for instance, is considered a major cause of impotence.

The campaign involves everything from direct mail, to setting up online sites such as uglysmoking.org and stayinghard.info, and even placing stickers on urinals in pubs that say,” Think with your penis? Your penis thinks you should stop smoking.”

Another ad, aimed at women, says bluntly, “If you smoke, you stink”.

Health minister Caroline Flint explained, “We know 70% of smokers want to stop. But with younger people fears about attractiveness and fertility can be stronger motivation to quit than fears about health.”

In the US, meanwhile, magazines sent to school libraries may soon have new bindings that will permit publishewrs to pull cigarette ads from the magazines before they are sent to the school. .

Already so-called classroom editions of magazines like Time and Newsweek  have tobacco ads pulled, but school libraries usually subscribe to the regular editions of magazines and therein was the problem.

Now cigarette advertisers are being offered the chance to ask that their advertisements be pulled from those magazines being sent to school libraries. If the advertiser says to pull the ad it is gone. But if not, it stays in.

And returning to the UK where ASA has banned advertising involving inhaling helium to affect a very high voice in commercials. Two radio ads – one for MasterCard and the other for Travelocity.com – were banned for encouraging young people to inhale the gas.

Previously the Radio Advertising Council had approved such ads by saying the risk of any harm from inhaling the helium was very low, but ASA says now that it is possible that as the helium replaces oxygen in the body that it could possibly cause asphyxiation.

ASA has also banned a poster for a text dating service because it was thought the poster could encourage teenagers to meet strangers. The poster encouraged teens to “Get texting to Get Dating.

ASA said it considered the poster condoned or encouraged irresponsible behavior and told the advertiser to withdrew it, which it did.

So, for teenagers life is getting progressively more difficult. Smoking is out, inhaling helium is out, and making dates with strangers are out.  But at least they can still spit, but they should hold off until after 9 p.m so the younger kids don’t see it.

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