TV commercial complaints rejected by watchdog
The Advertising Standards Authority delivers its rulings.
Complaints about pink frocks, monster trucks, meatballs and female frustration have been rejected by the Advertising Standards Authority.
A Sunbeam television commercial showing a woman becoming frustrated with a man is not sexist, the ASA's complaints board says.
Complainer R Macauley reckoned a commercial which showed a series of household "interactions" between men and women portrayed "all men as having lower intelligence than women".
The ASA's complaints board said the complaint had no grounds to proceed, did not breach any standards and was meant to be funny, according to chairwoman Jenny Robson.
Complainer H Alleyne claimed a Burger King television commercial advertising kids' meals, which showed girls playing with pink dress-up accessories and boys playing with monster trucks stated gender stereotypes as facts.
Again, there were no grounds to proceed, and Ms Robson noted the choice was open to the purchasers of the meals regardless of their child's gender, and it would be unlikely to cause widespread offence.
Finally, S Forbes believed a Smile City television advert depicted animal cruelty.
The commercial showed a girl serving a meatball, tennis style, using a frying pan as a racquet, followed by a "yelp" being heard off screen, indicating the meatball hit a dog.
"Normalising such violence is horrible, especially when the yelp was background noise which implied the dog did not expect it," S Forbes said.
Ms Robson said "the hitting of the meatball and the noise heard from off screen" was not likely to cause widespread offence, and again ruled there were no grounds to proceed.
Caleb Allison
Thu, 14 Jun 2012
Thu, 14 Jun 2012
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TV commercial complaints rejected by watchdog
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