Sex and alcohol driven rock band Steel Panther have pulled a Spinal Tap as their latest album advert has been banned for being ‘Overtly Sexual’ by UK authorities.
The advert has been running through out October and November and has recently received complaints by a charity for abused women from ethnic backgrounds.
ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) has stated that the poster will cause “serious and widespread offence” and so the poster should be banned. The bands record label, universal island records responded by saying the poster matched the bands “ludicrously over the top” personality.
The poster features a woman with dark hair leaning back wearing a skimpy halter neck outfit that only just covers her up, with two giant silver balls dangling between her legs.
Universal have stated that they did not mean to cause offense by the poster and it was meant to capture a 80s retro theme with outfits and themes of that era.
The ASA said: “We noted that the pose of the woman showed her with her legs apart, her hand between her legs and her breasts partially exposed and considered that her facial expression was suggestive of an orgasm and sexual activity. In addition to this, we considered that the album title “Balls Out” was sexually suggestive particularly when viewed in the context of the poster, where the woman was seen dangling two silver balls between her legs in a way that we considered was suggestive of male genitalia.
We noted Universal Island Records’ argument that the poster was meant to be viewed humorously and not to be taken seriously as it was meant to represent the over-the-top image of the band featured in the poster. However, we considered that most people would not view the poster in this way and even if they had viewed it in that context, the poster was overtly sexual when taken as a whole. Given its placement in a range of public locations, we concluded that it was likely to cause serious and widespread offence, was unsuitable to be seen by children and therefore was not appropriate for outdoor advertising.”
