'Degrading' advert hoardings taken down after complaints
Sunday July 01 2007
JEROME REILLY
GIANT images of young couples in an array of steamy situations used to promote a new housing estate got some local residents hot and bothered.
Now the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland have upheld complaints against the billboard campaign advertising the new Belmayne estate on the Malahide Road.
It may be tucked between the gloomy M50 and the mundanity of the local Tesco but Belmayne's titillating advertising campaign infuriated some people with its near naked glamour. One advert showed a young couple lying astride each other on top of a kitchen cupboard with the strapline 'Something's cooking @ Belmayne. Gorgeous living comes to Dublin.'
A ripe strawberry pie adds to the racy feel of another image in which a woman lies provocatively on top of a chopping board. Another billboard depicts two scantily-clad young women lounging legs akimbo on a bed, with a young man hovering behind them. The advert carries the tag: 'After hours @ Belmayne'.
A number of people who complained said that the images were of a sexual nature and that they bore no relationship to the sale of property. One even said that it appeared that women were for sale - not property.
People also complained that the adverts objectified and demeaned women.
The advertising agency McCann Erickson on behalf of LM Developments who built the estate replied that the objective of the campaign was to set out Belmayne as more than just a housing development and that they did not think it was inappropriate.
They added that they always ensured their models were suitably attired and the campaign was devised to look "Beautiful, glossy and high end."
A draft conclusion by the ASAI Complaints Committee, which have yet to be published, but have been seen by the Sunday Independent, concluded that the imagery used was of a sexual nature - especially the image including the strawberry pie.
The ASAI said they accepted that these types of photo shoots were commonly used in high fashion publications but they said this type of Advertising was inappropriate on outdoor sites or in the general press in the context of the sale of property.
The developers have already been told by Dublin City Council to remove the glossy posters because they needed planning permission. The Equality Authority has already invited tenders for an investigation of the advertising industry's use of "degrading" images of women.
Chief executive Neil Crowley said he decided to commission a document on the issue because the portrayal of women as scantily clad beauties and housewives is "getting worse".
Mr Crowley said the authority's decision to commission an inquiry, which was advertised last Friday, was not a direct result of any particular ad campaign. But he said the Belmayne housing campaign "got a lot of coverage in raising those issues".
