An artificial grass company forced to take down an 'inappropriate' billboard by the advertising watchdog has returned with a new poster poking fun at the ‘offended’.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) - the UK's independent regulator of advertising across all media - forced Oldham-based Great Grass MCR Ltd to take down a billboard in November last year after ruling it 'objectified and stereotyped women as sexual objects'.
The poster, situated on a busy junction in Hollinwood, where Oldham Road meets the M60 motorway, featured a headline stating the company were 'Artificial Grarse Experts'. Underneath the text was an image of a woman wearing only a thong with text which states: "Perfect 365 days a year...Get laid by the best."
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The ASA’s investigation, which was sparked by complaints, found the poster to be ‘irresponsible and likely to cause serious offence'. At the time, the local company said in response that the advertisement was a ‘bit of light-hearted fun and not intended to offend anyone’.
Having taken the poster down, the Oldham company has now replaced it with a new billboard ‘apologising’ to those who found the previous message offensive. In reference to the ASA complaints, the new headline states ‘Apologies to the offended 4’.
“You found it offensive, we all found it funny,” the poster adds. The billboard then features an angry face emoji followed by the number four alongside a laughing face emoji next to 40,000,000.
“Just because you’re offended, doesn’t mean you’re right,” the ad continued. The advertisement ended with a promotional offer for people to quote ‘not offended’ to receive 10% off their next order.
Speaking to the M.E.N, Great Grass MCR Ltd said the original billboard had been up for months before a complaint was first made, but said the overall reaction had been great for business.
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“It had been up for three months before it received three complaints,” owner Mike Allen said. “We’ve had that billboard spot for five years and no one has ever seen it but now that people have complained, everyone’s seen it.
“It was never meant to be offensive and we’ve had thousands of comments telling us they found it funny. It's been shared around the world and featured in loads of newspapers."
Mike said he had originally considered featuring a topless man in the new advert, but ultimately decided to poke fun at the complaints instead.
He explains: “I was just going to go back to doing a normal poster but then I thought, I’ll just say what everyone has said to us that they found it funny. It’s like Ricky Gervais said, just because someone finds something offensive doesn’t necessarily mean they’re right.”
Mike said the new poster has received a great response and he intends to keep the tongue-in-cheek messages coming.
“In the end, it’s had a positive effect on us and it’s worked out in our favour,” he added. “We’ve turned it on its head and it’s been the best thing to happen to us.
“In this day and age, with what’s going on in Ukraine and this country, there’s a million and one other things that we should all be worrying about instead.”
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