Top Sun-type tabloid headline, innit!

The Advertising Standards Authority has banned a television advertisement for Cussons shower gel which featured a naked woman sitting under a lemon tree. Because 29 people complained, the ASA decided that the ad caused

"serious or widespread offence against generally accepted moral, social or cultural standards"

That's right, in 21st Century Britain 29 complaints about a two second - yes two second - television image of a naked girl can be sufficient for it to be deemed a danger to public morals and duly banned. We can all go to bed tonight safe in the reassuring knowledge that our moral guardians never rest.

The ASA concluded that

"the combination of nudity and the stylised shots of the models pose were likely to be considered by viewers to have sexual overtones. Because some viewers were likely to believe that the model was a child, we considered the sexual overtones and nudity in the ad were offensive and inappropriate"

Cussons responded that the ad was intended to represent the naturalness of their product and gave their assurance that the model in the ad was an adult at the time of casting. They maintained that the question of how old she looked was entirely subjective.

Our European neigbours, to whom this sort of advert would seem entirely unremarkable, would be astonished at the nanny-state censorship that still exists in Britain today. The spirit of Mary Whitehouse stalks us still...

BBC News Report

ASA Adjudication

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