By Amy Musgrave
Most billboards for the strip club Teazers displayed in the Johannesburg area are not offensive, the Advertising Standards Authority ruled on Friday.
The only advert it took exception to was one with a woman's torso, showing her hands in her pants near the pubic area saying "Itching for action".
The ASA's Advertising Standards Committee dismissed the majority of the complaints that the billboards were offensive and sexist. However, the "Itching for a action" advert was found to be too explicit for a public board.
The ASA received three separate complaints that the billboards were offensive, objectified or stereotyped women, were harmful to children, posed a potential safety risk, and were overtly sexual and demeaning to women.
The billboards under consideration included one with a picture of a guava, one with the picture of a kitten, with the words "Ours are playful", and one featuring an oyster allegedly resembling a woman's genitals.
Another billboard showed a pole dancer with the words "Always in pole position", and there were various billboards with women's torsos, stating "Not your average lounge!", "Girls that stop traffic!" and "At Teazers our Girls don't Lounge Around".
The complainants said the billboards were sexually explicit and likely to offend numerous groups including, Christians, Muslims, people opposed to the objectification of women, women from a wide range of cultures and mothers with children.
They said the "likely audience" of the advertisement would definitely include children as they were positioned on one of Johannesburg's busiest main roads.
The complainants said it should be noted that South Africa was plagued by widespread rape, sexual abuse and exploitation of women and children.
The adverts were also likely to distract drivers, which may cause accidents.
The Commission of Gender Equality was requested to provide its opinion on the adverts.
It said all the billboards appeared where it was reasonably foreseeable that motorists and a wide section of the general public would involuntarily be exposed to them.
The billboards failed to state anywhere that the club was only open to adults, although it was conceded that those who were familiar with Teazers may be aware of this fact.
The commission said the imagery on the billboards were product-relevant and therefore by their very nature provocative, but it was of the view the advertising perpetuated a negative stereotypical gender role and perception of women as anonymous sex objects for male pleasure.
It was obvious the images such as the oyster connoted a crude symbolic representation of, or reference to, the female genitalia.
In defence of the adverts, Teazers said it had the right to commercial speech and the billboards should be viewed in the context of similar images in magazines, on TV, and other media.
The billboards depicting food items or animals contained a double meaning.
Teazers said that in regard to children, only adults who had become familiar with the meaning relating to sexual innuendo would attach such a meaning to the adverts.
The adverts should also be viewed in the context of advertisements such as the FCUK cosmetics where the brand FCUK could be interpreted as what may be considered a vulgar word.
Teazers had considered placing adverts on radio or television. However, it did not want its business to be considered a brothel, and would therefore not go for this option.
It said of all the billboards, the only one it considered remotely inappropriate was the "Itching for action" one.
Regarding context, Teazers said submitted that TV games were more explicit in the way they show violence and sex.
The committee said the offence taken to the adverts were by religious persons of certain moral standards who did not accept the existence of Teazers even though it was legal.
The respondents made available other forms of advertisement, including billboard advertising, depicting both females and males in more or less the same state of dress, which had not been objected to as they did not relate to adult entertainment.
It said there was no evidence to contradict the respondent's evidence that the women in the billboards made an autonomous choice to participate in the adverts. There was also no suggestion that the adverts were intended to lower their dignity.
"Furthermore, there is no objectification of these women as sex objects. Strip clubs are a recognised trade that both women and men participate willingly in.
"This situation is distinguishable from the notorious instances of exploitative and forced prostitution by syndicates that lure women and children into the sex trade," the committee said.
It said the "itching for action" billboard offended against good taste or decency.
"Unlike the other advertisements which do not make reference to sex, this advertisement carries a strong innuendo that Teazers offers sex as part of its service," the committee said.
Teazers was ordered to withdraw this advert with immediate effect and it may not be used again in its current form. - Sapa