Disney ad showing woman with 'lift my shirt to see more' caption banned

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Disney ad showing woman with 'lift my shirt to see more' caption banned
The Hindustan Times
Wed Dec 16 2009
Section: News

London, Dec. 16 -- A Disney advertisement, which shows a woman with the caption 'lift my shirt to see more' over her breasts, has been banned.

The online advert features a woman wearing a white T-shirt, inviting browsers to click on her chest to reveal her naked bosom.

A large black rectangle then covered her naked breasts before the screen switched to a trailer for the film 'Adventureland'.

Viewers have complained that the ad encouraged users to lift the woman's shirt 'in a voyeuristic manner'.

They insist that children could easily come across the advert posted on the Yahoo! news page.

However, Disney bosses are adamant that the campaign was not offensive, arguing "ads featuring women's breasts were fairly common and that such images were used in many publications aimed at male audiences and were tolerated by the general public".

Yahoo! also says it did not believe the ad was gratuitous or offensive and was only likely to be seen by the target audience of the film rather than younger children.

The Advertising Standards Authority has banned the ad.

"The ASA considered that the ad implied users would be able to expose the woman's breasts by using the computer mouse to lift up her top, as encouraged by the on-screen instructions," the Telegraph quoted a spokesman as saying.

"We noted, although the woman's breasts were obscured by a black rectangle, this was not apparent until the user had already taken action.

"We acknowledged that the film was about the experiences of a teenage boy before he went to college, but noted removing the woman's top had no direct link to the content of the film trailer that followed and was therefore gratuitous.

"We concluded that, because users were encouraged to take action to remove the woman's top in order to see her breasts, the ad was likely to cause serious offence to some users.

"The ASA noted Yahoo!'s assertion that the audience for the Yahoo! News page was overwhelmingly over 18 years of age.

"However, we considered that the site was of general interest and likely to appeal to a broad range of Internet users and that the ad was not protected through age verification or targeting.

"We considered that because users were actively encouraged to remove the woman's top, the ad was unsuitable for children and that Walt Disney had not taken adequate steps to ensure it was appropriately targeted.

"We concluded that the ad was in breach of the code.

"The ad should not appear again in its current form," he added.

Published by HT Syndication with permission from Asian News International. For more information on news feed please contact Sarabjit Jagirdar at htsyndication@hindustantimes.com