February 2004
Burton's Talking Dartboard too Offensive for the ASA
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled against Burton due to an advert that appeared in its Christmas catalogue. The offending advert concerned a dartboard featuring a cartoon of a woman who was naked from the waist up with two targets covering her breasts. If the targets were hit the product would play sound recordings of a woman talking. Text surrounding the depiction of the product stated "HIT THE RIGHT SPOT! HIT THE TARGET AND I SQUEAL WITH DELIGHT ... Every man can score with this babe!". There were also speech bubbles containing the phrases "DIDN'T FEEL A THING BIG BOY!" and "THAT HIT THE SPOT".
The ASA code prohibits advertisements that are likely to cause widespread offence and those which condone violence and anti-social behaviour. While conceding that they had received some 22 complaints about the item, Arcadia Group, who own the Burton chain, had argued that the advert was very much "tongue in cheek". Despite this, the ASA found that in the context of the Christmas catalogue the advert was likely to offend women who saw it and that it condoned violence against women. The ASA asked Burton to not repeat the offending advertisement in future catalogues and to seek the advice of the Committee of Advertising Practice Copy Advice before advertising the item again.
BRIFFA Comment:
The ASA has a wide remit to consider complaints made by the public that an advertisement is in bad taste. In this case, it would appear that the nature of the product made the advertisement in the catalogue almost certain to fall foul of the code. However, in addition to the characteristics of the product itself and prevailing standards of decency, the ASA must take into account a number of factors when deciding whether an advertisement is likely to cause offence. These factors include the context of the advertisement, the medium in which it is presented in and the audience that the advertisement is likely to reach. The decisive factor for the finding that Burton had breached the code appears to have been that the availability of the catalogue in what is seen as a "family store" made it likely to reach members of the public who would be offended.