The image banned by the ASA.
Outdoor ad installation.
The UK's Advertising Standards Authority today banned the ad image because, "We considered the presentation of the woman in a sexual pose and the blatant comparison with the food product was crass and degrading and therefore likely to cause serious offence to some visitors to Pot Noodle Facebook page."
Here's some reactions to the campaign:
Via The F Word:
"...rather than simply using an image of an attractive woman, it actively encourages viewers to "peel the top off a hottie" - which can be easily translated into "pull the top off a woman", an invitation to nothing other than sexual assault. Women are not only objectified and degraded to faceless "hotties" in the form of bodyless, floating breasts, but they (or rather, their breasts) are likened to Pot Noodle pots. Instant food in plastic pots - quite possibly the lowest of all commodities, there to be consumed and thrown away."
Via New Statesman:
"Such a lack of imagination in advertising is enough to make anyone as bored and jaded as a steaming hot model hired to "sex up" a pot of instant noodles. Is this really all that the collective human imagination can give? (...) The solution, of course, to this kind of thing is an easy one: don't let anyone who eats Pot Noodle take your top off, ever. A philosophy that we're sure many of you lived by anyway."
And, via A Girl With Best Intentions:
"Ah Pot Noodle. You marvellous, sexist dickwads. "Peel a top off a hottie" how hilarious! Way to reinforce sexism and lad culture. I take my hat- not top, sorry- off to you."
A spokesman from Pot Noodle defended the ad in an email to the New Statesman: "(It) is not intended to demean women in any way. As a brand targeting a male, youth audience, we do push the boundaries."
More images, plus the commercial from the campaign below.
Ad agency: Mother, London.
Facebook image for the "Peel The Top Of A Hottie" game.
Another image from Pot Noodle's facebook page.
