Warwick Capper’s Ultra Tune ad has viewers in a flap
An Ultra Tune advertisement featuring former footy star Warwick Capper and Baywatch icon Pamela Anderson is the most complained about ad of 2020.
Fiona Byrne
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Former footy high flyer Warwick Capper is a winner again, with his controversial Ultra Tune commercial with Baywatch icon Pamela Anderson, topping the list as the most complained about ad of 2020.
In data released by Ad Standards the advertisement, which featured a bumbling Capper being rescued from the waves by the buxom Anderson and her crew of stunning life savers, received a whopping 309 complaints.
It was by far the most complained about ad of the past six months, with a KFC ad in second place with 187 complaints.
The Ultra Tune ad was investigated by the Ad Standards Community Panel in February over issues of sexism, nudity and health and safety but was found not to have breached any sections of the AANA Code of Ethics.
Complainants certainly did not hold back in their concerns about the ad labelling it sexist, demeaning to and objectifying of women and insulting to men for portraying them as “hopeless goofs dominated by their hormones”.
A sample of comments from complaints describe the ad as “degrading of women” and accuse it of “fostering unhealthy stereotypes including the dithering man who ogles women to the point he can’t control himself.”
“I am no prude but once again it portrays females as nothing more than ditsy, dumb sex objects,” one complainant wrote.
Another wrote: “I would not be surprised to find that some men are insulted by being depicted as hopeless goofs, dominated by their hormones, so that they have to keep ditching the jeep into the water to be saved by the women.
Other comments included: “It plays on the stupid man, capable woman theme and in my opinion is derogatory to both,” and “It gives the impression that only women with big busts, large backsides and scantily clad are able to rescue idiotic men from the sea.”
Added another furious viewer: “the director’s decision to include several shots that would offend most single celled organisms, and using the old white guy to leer at girls and make sexist remarks does not hide the fact that the ad has more shots of apparently attractive females than actually advertising the product.”
In responding to the complaints Ultra Tune explained the ads were a series of contrived, hyper-realistic comedic circumstances and they were not exploitative, inappropriate or derogatory.
The panel found the ad showed Anderson and the other female lifesavers as active, heroic, capable and confident.