Skin-tight leather, kissing men and Lee-Lin Chin: Australia’s most complained-about ads

The Advertising Standards Bureau’s list of the ten most complained-about ads in the country has just been released for the first half of 2016, and ads which have pushed the boundaries of social norms seem to be at the top of people’s -I-don’t-want-to-see-this lists.

Some of the ads in the list manage to take three spots each, so obviously there’s a few taboos still held pretty widely in Australia.

Here’s the list, and fair warning; some of these may be a bit NSFW.

The complaints are obvious here. Especially when you consider the ad was played frequently during the Australian Open. You know what kind of people watch tennis on TV? Families, usually.

This is not Ultra Tune’s only entry on the list, so be prepared.

Best complaint: 

Pornography (which is the whole depiction of these women with false breasts spilling out all over, tight leather dresses and plumped up lips full of Botox) is completely inappropriate for a FAMILY audience. These ads have been shown DAY and night and the audience in our home is four kids, both male and female, aged 9 -16yr old. I DO NOT WANT OUR KIDS BEING EXPOSED TO THIS DURING TENNIS GAMES WHICH ARE A 'G' RATED EXPERIENCE AND YOU HAVE ALLOWED THEM TO BECOME MA15+. I don't understand how this sort of advertising has become ok when tennis is something to be enjoyed by everyone.

The Sydney lingerie outlet got itself into hot water in May with it’s Valentine’s Day posters, which depicted women in lingerie – clearly – corsets, sheer stockings and “opaque pasties”.

People were obviously a bit miffed about the whole thing, especially those shopping with their 6-year-olds at 10am on a Saturday morning.

Above, you can see a similar poster from their Christmas campaign, which lead to what is probably the best ad complaint-turned-true life advice ever: “The connection between Santa and sex is so wrong.”

Best Complaint: 

This is overtly sexualized and degrading in that the composition of the image is predominantly a woman's legs and bottom, dressed in the sort of lingerie that only a porn addled man would crave for. No woman wants to be valued simply for her sexual attributes and this ad simply reinforces the message that arousal is what women are good for.

Ok, this one is a bit of a doozy. As you can see in the above ad, the whole point of Medibank’s advertising campaign is to showcase Australian diversity, under the idea their health insurance is the best cover.

Can you guess which parts people had problems with? That’s right, two women and two men kissing. Strangely enough, complainants accused Medibank of doing the exact opposite of what they’re actually trying to do.

Really, the less said about the complaints on this one, the better. But just for curiosity’s sake…

Best Complaint:

I object to the content of a woman kissing a woman and a man kissing a man and it being portrayed as "normal" family. The rest of the advert is ok, but it seems that no thought of how normal families who view it has been taken into account. My husband and I find it very offensive and I object to my children seeing it. We are aware of the fact that there are gays, if there was a warning of the nature of the advert then I can turn it off, or show it when families aren't viewing it.

Possessed 11-year-old girls? Angry old ghosts attacking people indiscriminately? Terrible British accents? Not during The Simpsons, please.

This one’s obviously a bit easier to pick apart. If I saw this when I was eight years old, my parents probably wouldn’t see me for three days.

Best Complaint: 

I had nightmares last night and my oldest daughter had nightmares as well there is no need to scare people with demonic images if people want to see that sort of movie fine but there is no reason for us to be exposed to it.

The girls are back, and thankfully this time they’re not dressed as extras from a dystopian sci-fi film.

Although, it’s definitely worse. The duo immediately speed towards the edge of a cliff, managing to contact Ultra Tune just in the nick of time. Then one throws their phone on the dashboard and all hell breaks loose.

Less sexually offensive and more just plain offensive, the idea of two women driving their car off a cliff by accident obviously raised a lot of viewer’s ire.

Best complaint:

I was disgusted with this advertisement, there is no need to sexualise women when the product they are advertising has nothing to do with them, other than to grab the attention of male viewers. This has also happened previously with most if not all their ads, another example being; where they have two women, again, clad in rubber, if they wanted women to be in the ad why don't they have the women actually working in the department? 

Yes, this big one took three places, for their TV, internet and social media advertisements. Definitely the most epically produced advert on this list, Big Lamb (and the Big Lamb that is Sam Kekovich) returns for their yearly celebration of Australia day and the celebration of trying to not burn your lunch to a cinder.

Complaints ranged from the cultural appropriation of the name “Operation Boomerang”, to the uh, “unfair” treatment of vegans. 

But come on, what would Australia day be without Sam Kekovich screaming at us to eat more meat? 

Best Complaint:

This ad is offensive to Vegans, in the ad a vegan’s house is lit on fire while the vegan is still inside because he won't eat lamb. If people want to eat meat that is their choice but to ridicule others for being vegan is not ok. I know someone who lives in a vegan household, and their child watched the ad and became fearful that people would burn their house down. 

I’d hate to buy into any gender stereotypes, but I think these two ladies really need to stop driving. They don’t have that much luck with the whole experience.

Yet again, our two vivacious heroines get themselves stuck in an automotive jam. Weirdly enough, though, there’s no great Auto Tune dude to save them; they simply walk away from a train smashing into their car. They must have good airbags.

Best Complaint:

I think the advertisement is insensitive to the bigger issue of keeping people off train tracks and contradicts other advertisements made by the government and transport authorities that are trying to prevent people running train signals. It is making light of a very serious and real situation where people have lost their lives. Although at the end of the advertisement the women survive, the reality of the situation is that this is an unlikely outcome if it were to actually happen. 

Are you surprised? You probably shouldn’t be. You could also be forgiven for assuming Ultra Tune’s advertisements are produced by a bunch of 15-year-old boys with ADD.

Their “We’re Into Rubber” ad caused a lot of controversy on its release, and its lauded top spot here shows that. The original – and the best? – of Ultra Tune’s ads featuring the recurring models, this one at least makes some kind of sense. Rubber? Get it? Because they sell tyres? Ugh.

Best Complaint:

The ad featured two women dressed in figure-hugging leather outfits, with prominent cleavage. It was degrading to women and had pornographic overtones. It was televised during the tennis when many young children would be watching. I deemed it inappropriate for my children to watch and women especially would find this ad offensive, particularly when televised in the afternoon during a sports broadcast. We have a well-publicised problem with domestic violence and disrespect for women in Australia and this ad is a classic example of women being portrayed in a demeaning way. How can we change the culture concerning men's attitudes to women in this country when companies use demeaning advertising such as this? 

The list of Ad Standards Australia’s mot complained ads can be found at adstandards.com.au.