Camping company's wicked slogans...

[faceless]

Campers out of order for wicked slogans
July 22nd, 2008
www.ntnews.com.au
www.wickedcampers.com

A CAMPERVAN company with a branch in Darwin has agreed to ditch sexist slogans aimed at the backpacker market. The Advertising Standards Board has upheld complaints over slogans painted on the company's vehicles that claim "if God was a woman, sperm would taste like chocolate'' and "women are like banks -- once you withdraw you lose interest''.

Advertising Standards Bureau chief executive officer Alison Abernethy said Wicked Campers, which has a branch in Woolner, would remove the slogans. "The board considered the slogans to be misogynistic and demeaning to women and that they served to commodify women and could not be considered humorous or acceptable,'' she said.

Wicked Campers manager Dave Kinkead said the two slogans would be modified but the weight of public opinion, as evidenced on website polls, was behind the company. Of the company's 750 vans in Australia, only two complaints over slogans had been upheld. "I don't think it hurts us at all,'' Mr Kinkead said of the controversy. "Our target demographic of 18 to 35-year-old young travellers, they're all very open-minded and I think the majority of them agree with us.''

The board did not rule on four other complaints because it lacked visual evidence the slogans existed. The complaints related to three vans with the slogans "Random Breast Testing Unit'', "Women only fake orgasms because they think men care'', "Men would notice women's brains more if they jiggled when they walked'' and another painted with images of stick figure people in a range of sexual positions.

The board said while these slogans were misogynistic, demeaning to women and in breach of the advertising code, it was unable to take action in relation to them. Queensland Premier Anna Bligh was among complainants and last week she lodged a complaint over the slogan "Save a Whale -- Harpoon a Jap'', which she labelled racist.

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