An ad for the mobile app game ‘Infinity 8 Ball’, featured in the game Angry Birds 2, has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for sexualising and objectifying women.
The in-game ad for the Playorcas brand game included an animated image of a female character posing with one hand on her hip, wearing clothing that exposed her breasts.
A complainant contacted the advertising watchdog to challenge whether the ad had been irresponsibly targeted and whether the image ‘overly sexualised’ and objectified women.
While Playorcas did not respond to ASA enquires made about the ad, Angry Birds developer Rovio responded by admitting to an error in ad categorisation.
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“Rovio stated their procedures required that they, or third-party advertisers, applied filters to block any ad categories Rovio considered unsuitable for users of their apps. This included ads with partial nudity or sexual content,” the ad authority added.
The ad had not only breached ad codes with regards to being offensive, but Playorca had also broken rules by failing to respond to the ASA.
Ultimately agreeing with the complaint made, the authority demanded the promotion be taken down.
“We considered that portraying the woman in that way, for no other reason than to promote an online pool game, objectified her by presenting her as a sexual object with the sole purpose of titillating viewers,” the ASA said.
“Because we considered the ad was objectifying, we further considered it was likely to cause serious and widespread offence and included a gender stereotype in a way that was likely to cause harm.”
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