Watchdogs have banned a vegan soup advert featuring a naked male torso for being too 'suggestive'.
The saucy black and white poster promoting RE:NOURISH soup, sees a stark naked male lying on his side, the majority of his face cropped out, legs slightly apart and hand on his thigh.
However it’s the large orange soup bottle covering his nether regions, with the hashtag #NOTHINGTOHIDE, that’s got people blushing.
The Advertising Standards Watchdog (ASA) received complaints that the ad was ‘offensive and irresponsible’ because it was visible in a busy city centre with children walking past.
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In response, the brand insisted that the poster was not “gratuitous or overly sexualised” and that it did not degrade the model. The health-conscious company said that, in the original image, he was wearing underwear and the bottle had been purposefully placed to obscure his private parts.
They also explained that the racy poster had been put in two city spots “chosen in order to minimise offence based on local sensibilities”.
But the ASA upheld the complaint and said the advert had breached standards on social responsibility, harm and offence.
It said: “We acknowledged the ad had appeared on posters in city centre locations, which was an untargeted medium and where the image was likely to be seen by children and adults.
“We understood that the posters had not been placed within 100 metres of any schools.
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“We noted that the ad was for soup, and considered the image of a naked man bore no relation to the product advertised.
“While we considered the pose was only mildly suggestive in nature, we noted that most of the man’s head was cropped out of the picture, which invited viewers to focus on his body.
“We also considered the text “#nothingtohide” was likely to be understood as a pun about nudity, which some might also consider sexually suggestive.
“Further, we considered that this line, in combination with the placement of the bottle over the man’s naked crotch, would be understood as a clear reference to male genitalia.
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“Taking the image, the ‘#nothingtohide’ strapline and the placement of the bottle into account, we considered that the ad was likely to have the effect of objectifying the man by using his physical features to draw attention to an unrelated product.
“We therefore concluded that the ad was irresponsible and likely to cause serious offence to some people. The ad must not appear again in its current form.”
Who knew vegan soup could cause such a scandal?!
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