Honey Birdette advert at Broadway shopping centre removed

A provocative video advertisement on full display at a popular shopping centre has been removed after parents deemed it offensive and potentially damaging to children.

A provocative lingerie video advertisement displayed in a popular Sydney shopping centre has been removed after mounting pressure from parents.

The video advert, at the Honey Birdette store in Broadway Shopping Centre, showed a woman wearing a black cut out bra along with a collar and chain around her neck which is being tugged.

Shopping centre bosses said they had taken public feedback to the Honey Birdette lingerie store and that the advert had been removed.

However, a defiant Honey Birdette spokeswoman later said the only reason the advert was removed was to make way for another promotion.

After being posted in a Sydney mums Facebook group earlier this week, hundreds of parents called for the provocative advertisement to be prohibited from shopping centres across the city.

“I would hate for my 4-year-old daughter to see this – and for me to have to explain it,” one mother wrote.

The advert in the shopping centre

“So much objectification and materialism to navigate, it’s just all the wrong messages about what is a desirable woman, in a public domain that carries authority as a mainstream, family-friendly space.”

“Yuk, I wish our society didn’t force feed little girls this absolute rubbish,” she added.

Inner west mum Sarah Lalor created a petition calling for the removal of the Honey Birdette lingerie advertisement at Broadway and across other Sydney shopping centres.

“The advertising commodifies/objectifies women’s bodies and is too overtly sexual for shopping centres where children are inadvertently exposed to it,” her petition states.

It has attracted almost 500 signatures to date.

Broadway shopping centre. Picture: Dylan Robinson

Ms Lalor said she was shocked when she first saw the advertisement and said it removed the ability for parents to manage what young children were exposed to.

“I am a mother. I’m dismayed that this type of overtly sexualised advertising is allowed in a shopping centre in full view (next to the escalators) of all who pass by – including children,” Ms Lalor told The Inner West Courier.

“It removes the option for parents to manage the images that their young and very young children are exposed to, it removes our choice.

Petition organiser Sarah Lalor with her daughter Grace Lalor-Kea. Picture: Supplied

“While I am a liberated woman, I do not believe nor understand (from reading articles on early childhood) that this type of exposure to sexual imagery is healthy – it is damaging to developing healthy ideas around sexuality.”

Ms Lalor also took issue with the bondage-style nature of the advertisement, arguing it reduced women to sexualised objects.

“The imagery also adds to the plethora of content young women are bombarded with, it reduces women to sexualised objects, of only one size (tiny), it is not empowering (which the company claims),” she said.

She said there should be much more stringent rules around this sort of advertising, adding: “It’s about context and environment – this is a family shopping centre and the advertisement is in plain view, not acceptable in light of the community that utilises the centre.”

Senior lecturer in marketing at RMIT University Dr Lauren Gurrieri said research showed that children were influenced by exposure to sexual advertising.

“If there’s a woman objectified in this way they think a woman is valued on her appearance in a particular and narrow way. They would think a woman who is submissive is the norm and that plays to problematic gender relations,” Dr Gurrieri said.

She said exposure to this sort of advertising also had an impact on girls as well as boys.

“For girls, seeing these images of a highly idealised body has an impact on their self-esteem and body image and that can start at a very young age.”

Dr Gurrieri claimed this particular advertisement had possible grounds to be determined as “overtly sexual” if public complaints were made to Ad Standards.

“I would say the way in which she‘s posed and by how closely cropped it is you could make an assessment that this is an overtly sexual image.

A petition calling for the removal of the Honey Birdette advertisement at Sydney shopping centres.

Honey Birdette founder Eloise Monaghan said the lingerie style in the imagery was designed by a woman.

“We want women to be proud of their bodies, and I don’t know what’s wrong with that,” she said.

“We’re not eroticising violence, we’re eroticising women, which is perfectly understandable because women are erotic and fabulous.”

Mirvac, which owns Broadway Shopping Centre, said it was aware of the public concerns around the advertisement and has since removed the advertisement.

“Broadway Sydney Management is aware of the concerns surrounding the Honey Birdette store advertising and the specific video in question,” a Broadway Sydney spokeswoman said.

“We made contact with the store and management team to pass on these concerns and the particular video in question was taken down.

“While the advertising being displayed sits behind the lease lines of their retail store and currently meets the Australian Advertising standards, we will continue to work with Honey Birdette to communicate customer feedback as we strive to provide all of our retailers and our shoppers with the best possible experience inside our centre,” she added.