No stranger to controversy, Bonds' latest incarnation of its Boobs campaign, Boobicon, has once again racked up a string of complaints, all of which have been dismissed by the Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB).
The ad uses the familiar Bonds branding to spell out the word “boobs” with a focus on portraying different type of boobs: big boobs, small boobs, saggy boobs and everythig in between.
Bonds received similar complaints this time last year for its first Boobs campaign, with the industry watchdog clearing the brand of any wrongdoing.
However, the ASB has received a fresh round of complaints for Boobicon with most claiming the ad was objectifying women and using inappropriate language.
One complaint said: “It is really 'off' and in very bad taste. I don't want to get on a public bus and have to be confronted by the word 'BOOB' everywhere I look in large letters. It's really disrespectful.”
Another added that it was “upsetting to my wife and daughters.”
However the ASB has cleared Bonds of any wrongdoing noting the ad “does not make any suggestion that women are only breasts or any comment about women that can be implied to be debasing to women or lowering women in character or quality.”
It also mirrored last year's ruling saying: “The board considered that the use of the term boobs is common slang, is used in a manner that is consistent with modern Australian vernacular, and is a word that many women use in relation to their own breasts.”
In response, Bonds said: “We strongly disagree that our ‘Boobicons’ campaign discriminates, vilifies, exploits or degrades women.”
“To the contrary, the intention of the campaign is to celebrate the diversity of women and their boobs, and to champion this via a product range that caters to a wide variety of shapes and sizes.”
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