‘Offensive’ Shower Power Ad Gets Thumbs Up: Ad Standards

The Advertising Standards Board (ASB) has received several complaints about a OzKleen ‘Shower Power’ advert which features a bloke cleaning the shower in his red speedos.

This TVC features a male voice-over, in the style of Arnold Schwarzenegger, saying, “Shock. Shower power actually works” with “instant results in 60 seconds”. But viewers get a bit of an eyeful when Captain Power turns to face the camera…

A selection of the complaints:

The advert shows a man in his underpants using the product
The ad has a male wearing small swimming togs with a tool belt that he hooks the bottles of Shower Power to. The last image is a close up of his crotch which is unsightly and offensive.
Full frontal close up of a man in his jocks. Not suitable for tv.
It looks gross seeing what a man has between his legs don’t get what that has to do with cleaning

The advertisers response was that generally people do not clean their showers fully clothed, so this ad isn’t offensive:

The actor in question is depicting a man cleaning his shower, in general people do not clean their showers fully clothed they either clean the shower whilst they are actually taking a shower or while they are in their underwear/swimwear this is due to the nature of cleaning a shower you will get very wet whilst rinsing off the cleaning agent.
Our actor was wearing a pair of red swimming trunks, the trunks themselves were not tight fitting or low cut in any way. Simply standard swimming trunks.
The section of the ad the viewer took umbrage to was not in any way meant to focus on “what a man has between his legs” it was in fact to showcase the brand Shower Power on the actor’s toolbelt. We made every effort to ensure there was no visible signs of the genitals in this section of the ad and we are of the opinion that this was successfully achieved.
The ad itself is aimed at showcasing the products effectiveness in an upbeat and humorous fashion.

The ASB agreed with Captain Power: “The style of speedos worn by the man in the advertisement are consistent with a style of swimwear worn by many men in Australia and in the Board’s view there is no undue focus on this part of the man’s body and the man’s private area is appropriately covered.

“The Board determined that the advertisement did not breach Section 2.4 of the Code”.

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Captain Power INDEPTH