Optus Says Size Does Matter And Ad Standards Board Is Ok With That

Optus Says Size Does Matter And Ad Standards Board Is Ok With That
B&T Magazine
By B&T Magazine



An Optus ad where three women having a yarn about men has avoided the wrath of the Advertising Standards Board (ASB), with the board dismissing complaints against it.

The advertisement features the women discussing Sarah’s new squeeze, who for all intents and purposes sounds perfect, but then one asks ‘What’s the catch?”. Apparently there is none, but when the other women continue jabbering about Greta’s new TV that’s simply huge, Sarah shouts ‘Size doesn’t matter!’.

But Optus isn’t buying it, and the advertisement closes with ‘Cos size does matter. Watch Netflix on the big screen with Optus TV with Fetch’.

You can watch the vid on Facebook here.

Complaints ranged from “The advertisement devalues the career and achievements of a person and reduces their only worth as a partner to the size of their penis” to “It completely sexualises the male body and devalues men and their achievements and worth as people”.

Another cracker said, “The ad implies that even if you went to medical school, studied for 10+ years, learnt five languages (he’s probably in doctors without borders too) he’s not a worthy partner because he has a small (or not a large) penis. It implies the only use of a man is his genitalia”.

In response, Optus said it “respectfully does not agree”, adding “Optus does not believe that the advertisement or the specific line “size does matter” line could incites hatred of men or treats men in a discriminatory fashion”.

“It is intended to be humorous and tongue in cheek, and is being well received in terms of online sentiment. The reference to size within the ad is not explicit to any characteristic of the boyfriend, rather on the face of it the ladies are talking about the size of the screen.”

The ASB dismissed the complaints with the ruling, “In the context of a light-hearted chat between three women with no man visible, the advertisement did not portray or depict material in a way which discriminates against or vilifies a person or section of the community on account of gender”.

We still think it’s because when it comes down to it, size kinda does matter…




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