An ad for Medibank Private featuring a young girl using an iron to straighten her red frizzy hair has been censured by the Advertising Standards Bureau as being ”unsafe”.
The print ad which ran Better Homes and Gardens, Mother & Baby, Practical Parenting,and Little Kids show the pre-teen girl trying to straighten her hair with an iron accompanied by the tagline “We can’t stop kids being kids”.
Medibank Private claimed the ad which was promoting its health insurance product, was not aimed at children and the publications it was placed in were read by women and mothers.
But the ASB board ruled that the image showed a practice that was unsafe and would be regarded as breaching health and safety standards, It also found that while the ad was intended for adults, children could and would have access to the magazines.
The board upheld complaints about it. Medibank Private has decided to remove the ads from circulation.
In a separate case the ASB dismissed complaints against a series of sexual ads from Thoroughbred Racing South Australia.
The ads feature women with whips, handcuffs and horses and were designed to promote a horse racing carnival.
In one ad an attractive woman brandishing handcuffs fashioned from horse shoes and another showed a long-legged blonde woman wielding whips.
But Mark Jeanes, chief executive officer at the ASB said: “The ads were clearly tongue in-check and a bit of fun. Any sexual references were only implied. The advertiser was being creative in the use of suggestion and innuendo.”
