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A raunchy TV ad featuring ex-Baywatch star Pamela Anderson has been banned for being sexist and degrading to women, reports the Guardian.
Viewers complained over scenes of ex-Baywatch star dancing in a bikini while covered in cream
The ad, for web hosting service CrazyDomains.co.uk, featured the Barb Wire star in a boardroom full of men.
While addressing the board Anderson and her assistant, Vanessa, show a lot of cleavage and one of the men fantasizes about the pair dancing in bikinis while covered in cream.
Dreamscape Networks, the parent company of Crazy Domains, said the dream sequence was not “gratuitous or pornographic.”
Watchdog, the Advertising Standards Authority, received four complaints that the ad was offensive because it was sexist and degrading to women.
The ad was given clearance by Clearcast, which vets ads before they air, to run after 9 p.m. The organization said it had no problem with the sexual content as Anderson was a “celebrity who was known for flaunting her body.”
The company said that Anderson was deliberately dressed as “the head of business” and the duo were positioned as “attractive, dynamic and confident business people.”
The lead male character was portrayed as “nerdy and lacking in confidence”, so the campaign was “anything but degrading to women,” the company argued.
The ASA said that Anderson and her assistant were portrayed “sexually through out the ad,” not just the fantasy sequence.
It added that the fantasy scene was sexually suggestive and gave the impression the man “viewed his female colleagues as sexual objects to be lusted after.”
The ASA banned the ad, saying that it “considered the ad was likely to cause serious offence to some viewers on the basis that it was sexist and degrading to women.”
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