FBoy Island Bats Away Ad Complaints

Reality TV show FBoy Island has been drawing the ire of viewers for its raunchy ads but, Ad Standards has found that they do not cross the line.

Hosted by Cannes in Cairns speaker Abbie Chatfield, FBoy Island sees three women on their quest to find love and attempt to separate the “nice guys” from the “Fboys” from a collection of 24 men.

Shown on Foxtel-owned Binge, the show’s ad campaigns on free-to-air TV and online have offended the puritanical nature of some viewers.

A complaint to Ad Standards read:

“Strongly demonstrating simulated sex gesticulations, tongue licking of barely clad female. Media able to be viewed by anyone regardless of age 24/7. This advertisement being shown on free to air tv in early evening.”

In its response to the complaint, Foxtel said that it “takes the complaint very seriously and regrets any offence caused.”

However, it said the campaign was created with a “target audience in mind” and that, contrary to the complaint, it was never played on linear free-to-air TV.

“Rather it has been played on video-on-demand apps via a targeted campaign to females aged 18-34 who also enjoy other reality genre TV shows such as Love Island. To this end, the advertisement was targeted at contextually relevant environments / audience members,” said the network.

It also said that the complainant misrepresents the advert with very limited nudity and that the alleged “tongue licking” never happened.

“There is a 0.5-1 second cut where a female clothed in a blue, long-sleeved dress has a male contestant “grind” against her while she is laughing (there is no tongue licking, and the shot, which is a very short one, is not a close-up). This is in the context of a talent show game from the show itself, and reflects the comedic, light-hearted nature of the scene.”

The Ad Standards panel, meanwhile, agreed with Foxtel’s assessment of the TVC. However, it also noted that while Foxtel said the campaign was shown to a limited and highly targeted audience, it would have been possible for children to have seen the advert if they were watching BVOD services with a family account.

The digital ad, meanwhile, was shown on a news site and this made it less likely to have been viewed by children.

Overall, the ads were not found to have breached the AANA codes in any way.

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