An advert for a club night at Lola Lo has been banned for being “inherently sexual” and promoting irresponsible drinking.
The ad, to promote club night Coco Beach Mondays, features a woman with her head tilted back and her mouth open. Liquid - presumably alcohol - is being poured onto her eyes.
The Advertising Standards Authority banned the advert and told the nightclub to “not link alcohol to sexual activity” or “show alcohol being handled or served irresponsibly” in the future.
The advert appeared in two separate Facebook posts. One of the posts was accompanied by the caption: “Nice artwork … haha leaving to the imagination whats [sic] out of shot!”
It received complaints from people who believed the advert was “sexually explicit and objectified women”.
ASA looked into the issue and banned the advert for a number of reasons.
“We considered that the way the model was posed with her head titled back, her mouth wide open with her tongue extended out and the liquid being poured out of shot, meant that the image was inherently sexual in nature,” it explained.
“We considered that although the exact type of liquid being poured in to the models eye was not revealed in the image, it was heavily implied to be alcohol.”
Text promoting “free bubbly” and “discounted drinks” were also considered to be linking alcohol with sexual activity.
The advert also demonstrated eyeballing, where alcohol is administered through the eyeball, which ASA noted had “associated health risks”.
Finally, the advertising watchdog said the image used in the ads was “sexually gratuitous and provocative” adding that it “mimicked the style of facial pornography”.
“We considered that the image that appeared in both ads, taken together with the sexually suggestive comment that accompanied ad (b), objectified women,” it said. “We therefore considered that the ads were sexist and likely to cause serious widespread offence.”
When contacted about the complaints, Harvey Herdman, trading as Coco Beach Mondays, did not respond to the advertising watchdog’s enquiries.
ASA banned the adverts ruling that they must not appear in their current form.