Decency Issue in Advertising
The current worldwide harmonization and integration of international standards, which
are being driven by rapid progress in information and communication technology (ICT),
has rendered the globe borderless, thereby subjecting news, events, advertisements,
etc from any part of the world, to just a click of the button!
In today’s media-propelled, fast-moving age, advertisements sell beyond products.
They sell lifestyles, dreams, images, ideas, even principles and ethics (H.Thiel 2003).
And a lot of advertisers play on our most basic, primitive instincts by associating their
products with sex.
The partial exposure of Janet Jackson’s right breast to an estimated 140 million viewers
for three seconds on Sunday, February 1, 2004, during the half-time show of the Super
Bowl has suddenly put advertising under increased scrutiny in America. Though primarily a
programming scandal, which saw pop artiste Justin Timberlake, popping off part of Janet’s
corset, advertising got roped in as the debate raged on what is acceptable behaviour by the media.
A section of the American society, which felt the whole issue was irritating and therefore
did not merit the huge attention it attracted, based its argument on the premise that the
question of decency vis-?-vis respect for women shown in advertisements was a much
more serious issue. So let us look at advertising. Many advertisers believe that scantily
clad women sell their products. Ironically, sometimes they do. If you have ever seen Calvin
Klein advertisements, then there should not be any doubts in your mind that they use the
most provocative and indecent images (M. Alawdeen 2000).
Yet Calvin Klein is one of the market leaders in the consumer market. For Mr. Klein himself,
the man behind the shocking advertisements, overwhelming sales are more than just a happy
event, but a proof that his tactics are ingenious. Have you ever wondered who exactly Pepsi
tries to sell to when they clad Britney Spears in a half-shirt with suspenders and low-slung,
ripped jeans in a commercial with a male character at the end staring lewdly at the television screen?
I hear it is most likely teenage girls who are avid Britney Spears’ admirers (N. Katz 2003).
Why do women and sex sell products? It is true that advertisers are playing with instincts,
which have been formed more than some millions of years (H. Price 2002). These advertisements
are targeted at men for the simple reason that sex is just one of our basic strong emotions.
And advertisers will always attach their products to these basic emotions in order to sell them
(E. Zanot 2001).
You probably have been seeing blatantly offensive advertisements that are not only helping to
sexualize our culture, but also denigrating and objectifying our women too. Advertisers are increasingly
daring to ruffle feathers all in the name of making a material impact, while the creators of these
advertisements describe the whole exercise as “creative light-heartedness and freedom of
expression”! (E. Smith 2004). Unfortunately, these “Eminent Creatives” forget that with this
cherished freedom goes responsibility.
Sometime last year, TBWA Hunt Lascaris (South Africa) had to defend a complaint lodged by a lady
about their “NIVEA SOFT” television commercial, which showed a young woman caressing herself
and happily playing around in the rain. The allegation was that the commercial was offensive and
implied soft pornography. In addition, it was believed that the model was underage.
I was disenchanted with the outcome of the case, which further reinforced my impatience with the
so- called principle of “self- regulation”, which the South African advertising industry operates
through its Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). To have ruled that there was no evidence that
the commercial was generally offensive is, to say the least, embarrassing. I also disagree with the
Authority’s excuse that the model was not under 18 and that the commercial was not aimed at children.
But what the organization fails to realize is that advertisements of this nature are unavoidable.
If your children do not watch, chances are, their friends do. For example, the- then Chairman of the
U.S Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Mr. Michael Powell, was actually watching the
Super Bowl game with his two children when Janet Jackson and her friend chose to condescend to
ignominy. By the morning of the next day, the FCC had received “thousands” of complaints, mostly
from parents, against the infamy (CNN 2004).
The effect of Janet’s wardrobe slip can be seen in the FCC’s determination to crack down on sexual
content in the American media. Are we simply looking at women’s bodies in advertisements without
regard for their minds? That sex is a marketing tool, which has no impact on us, as some advertising
professionals are wont to say, is simply a reflection of the level of decadence that has pervaded our
society. When we begin to associate female buttocks (other body parts missing) with mobile phones,
sprawling long-legged damsels with gas cookers, female navels (housing air tickets and international
passports) with airlines, “topless” ladies with automobiles, etc., then there is something intrinsically
wrong. Suggestive radio commercials are not exempt!
This is one bad effect of globalization on us as more advertisements today are brazenly stepping over
the barriers of morality. Should we hinge our decision to buy stuff on whether or not the products are
linked to some cute model or attractive guy? I hope such irresponsible advertising will not, someday,
touch off cries of protest and organized action such as witnessed two years ago in Pakistan, where
hundreds of Islamic hardliners pulled down billboards depicting women and western products, which
they regarded as disrespecting Islam (PakistanFacts 2003).
While I want to distance myself from any form of violence and wanton destruction, I would like to warn
that, if our advertisers do not exercise restraint, they might risk a boycott, someday, by consumers.
About the author:
Yusuf Danesi is Assisitant Director, Planning, Research and Statistics in the Advertising Practitioners
Council of Nigeria (APCON), the country’s apex regulatory organ for advertising.
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