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Cape Town – A new TV ad promoting the internet TV service, ShowMax, got reported to the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASASA) for featuring a "semi-nude" man.
The ad showing a man in his boxers dancing in front of his wife drew criticism after it was aired during a daytime news bulletin.
The complaint submitted to the ASASA stated: “Advertising ShowMax using a semi-nude male dressed in bunny ears and a pink boa gyrating sexually in front of his wife? And witnessed by a young boy. The advertisement appears during day programming and is unsuitable for the time slots when it appears. As grandparents it’s totally unacceptable when our grandchildren are watching TV during the afternoons. If it’s supposed to be amusing it is anything but that.”
Richard Boorman, head of communications for ShowMax, reacted to the complaint saying: "If there's one common criticism of TV ads it's that they can tend towards playing things safe. I’m proud of our marketing guys for not going that route and shaking things up a little."
He added: "Getting to the heart of the complaint, is our ad suitable for children? In my head they're just seeing a goofy dad with his dad bod and awful dance moves. An adult may read something else into it, but if their kids are doing the same then they're also getting the innuendo in countless other ads, music videos, soapies and sitcoms.
"I think this also needs a sense of perspective. The ad aired during the news. We know how many awful images and themes there are in the news on a depressingly regular basis. War, suicide bombers, rape, murder. If we deem the ShowMax dad ad to be unsuitable, then surely we need a wholesale rethink on what else makes it on to daytime TV.
"The irony is if one were watching ShowMax there wouldn’t be any ads and you could activate the kids profile and know 100% that nobody is going to stumble across anything they shouldn’t."
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