Viewers accuse Coty perfume ad of being 'overtly sexual'
The advertisment in question features a group of young people dancing, with some of the males topless and some females wearing hot pants and cropped or bra tops, of which viewers felt was likely to cause serious or widespread offence and also questioned how suitable it was in terms of being broadcasted at times of day when children could be watching.
On contacting the company, Coty responded to the ASA saying that the ad featured a group of lightly dressed people dancing provocatively but with their private body parts covered while explaining that it was intended to reflect the 'young and edgy spirit' of the products, whose target group was aged 18 to 25, not to cause offence and that they believed the ad did not breach the Code.
'Brief sexual content unlikely to cause widespread offence'
On looking into the matter, the regulatory body considered the scene the complainants were concerned about as being overtly sexual but also noted that there was no explicit sexual content in the ad and that the scene was very brief.
"Although we considered the ad was briefly overtly sexual and acknowledged it might therefore be distasteful to some, we considered that, in the context of marketing for perfume and if appropriately scheduled, the ad was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence to most viewers."
However on the matter of the broadcasting time the ASA did consider the scene as unsuitable for young children, despite being brief.
"While we acknowledged Coty's comment that the ad had not been scheduled in or around programmes of particular appeal to children, we were concerned that some complainants reported having seen it during family films."
Thus in this instance, the regulatory body considered the overtly sexual nature of the scene in question as inappropriately scheduled and an ex-kids restriction should have been applied to prevent the ad from being broadcast in or around children's programming.
