KEY POINTS:
A complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority about a "crude" and "sexual" advertisement for Charlie's Soda has been upheld.
The complaints board ruled the TV advert was indecent, used sexual appeal to sell an unrelated product and did not meet the required sense of social responsibility.
The complainant objected to the cartoon-style depiction of two young boys spying on a woman sunbathing nude in her backyard before cutting to the boys squeezing lemons to make homemade lemonade.
"It was not cute, funny or entertaining," he said. "Making a point of focusing on the woman's barely hidden breast, then the boys simultaneously squeezing/rotating lemons ... is a very crude sexual innuendo."
In its submission to the authority, Charlie's Group said some people might "not get" the advertisement. However "on reflection" it was not suitable for children.
The company then raised the commercial's broadcast time to Adults Only (AO).
The authority acknowledged the move by Charlie's to reclassify the advertisement but still found it to be in breach of three separate broadcasting principles.
The company defended its use of a nude character as she was "decently covered".
The Television Approvals Bureau also defended the advertisement.
"The depiction of hands squeezing lemons could perhaps be seen as provocative but only due to assumptions made by the viewer's imagination."
- NZPA
