By Jenny Noyes
The days of Wicked Campers' off-colour branding may be numbered, as federal Minister for Women Kelly O'Dwyer seeks a national response to stop the company branding its vehicles with "sexist, misogynistic and offensive slogans".
With slogans like "in every princess there is a little slut that wants to try it just once", "the best thing about oral sex – 5 minutes of silence" and "life sucks if your girlfriend doesn't", the company has long courted the ire of women, families, and people who prefer not to be distracted by obscenities while driving.
Federal Minister for Women, Kelly O'Dwyer, is taking on offensive language on the side of camper vans owned by John Webb, the founder of Wicked Campers.Credit:
Ms O'Dwyer has written to state and territory ministers seeking their urgent support to advance a co-ordinated national approach to force Wicked Campers to comply with community standards.
The company has managed to avoid compliance with Ad Standards' Community Panel determinations to remove advertising emblazoned on its vehicles despite them being deemed offensive, because the company owns the vehicles that carry the ads.
With no third party media provider with which Ad Standards can work, the existing legislation has allowed the company to ignore those determinations.
In recent years, Queensland and Tasmania have introduced legislation specifically targeting Wicked Campers, giving power to motor vehicle registries to deregister any vehicle that doesn’t comply with Ad Standards determinations.
But without uniform law across the states, Wicked Campers has been able to avoid compliance (and enforcement of large fines and penalties) by simply changing the registration of offending vehicles to another jurisdiction.
In 2014, a Sydney mother won a short-lived victory after a petition she started gained more than 110,000 signatures, resulting in a written apology from Wicked Campers owner John Webb, and a guarantee to "acknowledge the prevailing community opinion by removing the slogan in question and making a commitment over the coming six months to changing slogans of an insensitive nature".
But vans with off-colour messaging and imagery – like "save water, have a bath with the neighbour's daughter", "life is like a bowl of soup, you only get blown if you're hot" or the cookie monster depicted shooting himself in the head – have been featured on Wicked Campers' Instagram page this year.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Regional Development Michael McCormack is pursuing regulatory reforms via the Transport and Infrastructure Council (TIC) forum of state, territory and federal ministers.
At a meeting of the TIC last year, the Austroads Registration and Licencing Taskforce was given the green light to progress national adoption of the Queensland government’s approach.
Mr McCormack said he is urging state and territory ministers to adopt the Queensland reforms.
"These vehicles are offensive and belong in a junkyard, not on Australian roads," he said.
He also encouraged tourists to boycott the company.
"By choosing to avoid these vehicles, you're also choosing to ensure parents or grandparents won't have to explain the vile meaning of these disgusting signs or images to their children or grandchildren while driving on our roads."
Wicked Campers, NSW Roads Minister Melinda Pavey and NSW Shadow Roads Minister Jodi McKay have been approached for comment.