23/07/2019
The BBC News website has, in another example of sensationalism, announced that a banned advert had now appeared on a billboard in Mapperley, Nottingham.
To say the advert had been banned was rather stretching the truth. Adverta, the company responsible for adverts on buses and trams in Nottingham, refused to run it, suggesting it could cause offence.
Looking at the advert itself, it is hardly akin to the overtly sexual adverts of past decades. It features a woman leaning casually (not sexually, or suggestively) on a wall. She is wearing denim shorts and a white t-shirt; neither of which are overly revealing or 'sexy'. There's no moisture (sweat or otherwise) to add to the sexuality of the image.
Is the advert of questionable taste? I guess the answer might be, mildly, yes.
It isn't offensive.
If you want examples of offensive adverts, just look at those used extensively by Vote Leave and LeaveEU, a few of which are copied below.
The breaking point poster mimics a scene from a 1941 Nazi propaganda film, showing just how disgusting and offensive the campaign led by Nigel Farage was.
The suggestion that 75m Turkish nationals would be given access to the NHS is, obviously, absurd as well as xenophobic.
These are the adverts that should have provoked outrage, disgust and criticism.
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