Billboard grope 'offensive'

A billboard campaign for jeans showing a woman apparently groping a naked man under a satin sheet has been ruled offensive by the Advertising Standards Complaints Board.

One of six people who made formal complaints about the Alibi Jeans ad was concerned that schoolchildren and the public were exposed to "this level of gratuitous sexual intent".

"The lump under the sheet where his genitals would be leaves no doubt as to her intention," the complainant said.

However, Alibi Jeans said the ad was intended to show "the empowerment of women using a typically male scenario".

Women surveyed had reacted positively, the company said.

The agency, King Street Advertising, said that in terms of sexual connotation the ad was considered by focus groups to be at the "milder end of the scale".

"While we have shown a scene which shows an older woman having control over a younger man, we consider it in good taste and well within the boundaries of social responsibility."

However, the complaints board was unanimous that the image, together with the "very public" medium, was "likely to cause widespread offence".

- NZPA