The ad watchdog has dropped a case against Libra despite a complaint the television commercial was "sexist" and degrading to men.
Libra's recent 'Boot Camp' spot showed two women sitting in their car watching men training on an oval. It was aiming to promote the company's new Invisible Pads, and carried the tagline 'Designed to fit no matter what you do'.
The Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) received one complaint arguing the ad was "sexist" and vilified men.
The complainant said: "It is sexist. If it were men watching ladies at a boot camp, women would be offended. If it happened in real life, with men in the car, watching the women, police would be called and reported/arrested.
"If the roles were reversed, there would be a lot more objections from women. Men are for some reason are just expected to ignore the double standards."
Libra, owned by hygiene company SCA, hit back arguing that wasn't the intention of the campaign and believed it would appeal to its target market's sense of humour.
It said: "The advertisement was created with the intention that it would generate engagement and empathy with our target audience with harmless, cheeky, light hearted humour. It was aimed at appealing to the sense of humour of our target market, which is women aged 18 – 25.
"The complaint received relates to discrimination of men and that if the roles were reversed and men were watching women do boot camp, it would be a criminal offence. In advertising constructs, there can be an element of exaggeration where situations have a somewhat unrealistic or unnatural aspect to them that would not necessarily happen exactly in real life."
The ad watchdog looked at the spot in relation to Sections 2.1 and 2.2 of its Code which relate to discriminative or degrading material in advertising.
It said: "While the women are shown to be keen to admire the men as they work out, as soon as the women think they have been spotted by the men they try and hide.
"The overall tone of the advertisement was humorous rather than predatory and that the women are presented in a manner which is appreciative of the men rather than as threatening towards them.
"All actors in the advertisement are fully clothed in a manner appropriate to their activities and considered that the men are portrayed as strong and confident."
Following this, it dismissed the case.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=922zttRsJQE
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