The advertising watchdog has banned a promotional tweet featuring an image of the Loose Women cast and the phrase “you can put lipstick on a pig but it’s still a pig”.
Quite rightly so!
The tweet was published by gambling company Fruity King Casino on September 8, using an image of Loose Women stars including Stacey Solomon and Katie Price, that had initially been run as part of the show’s Body Stories campaign.
It featured the caption: “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig. #LooseWomen18.”
Quite understandably, a complaint was made to the Advertising Standards Authority, deeming the tweet offensive and derogatory towards women.
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Fruity King denied the tweet was derogatory towards women and the tweet to them was “meant to refer to the TV show, in which the women in the photo appeared in, as a low quality programme.”
Harsh!
Well, the ASA has now ruled the tweet could be deemed offensive.
It said: “We considered that the image along with the text ‘You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig’ was derogatory towards women and therefore concluded was likely to cause widespread offence.”
Obviously.
The ASA also ruled the tweet could be seen as “ridiculing” the television presenters, who took the initial photo in a bid to portray a positive body confidence message.
“We considered that the image shown in the tweet would be understood by viewers as intending to portray a positive image of women’s bodies,” said the ASA.
“However, we noted that the text ‘You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig’ was shown above the image.
“We considered that this was specifically targeted at the women shown in the image and, consequentially, ridiculed what it represented.
“We told ProgressPlay Ltd that their future advertising must not be derogatory towards women.”
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ProgressPlayLtd, which licenses the brand Fruity King Casino, apologised for causing any offence and said they wouldn’t run the ad again.
Good.