Poundland’s risque ‘naughty elf’ ads, which showed an elf playing strip poker and teabagging a Barbie, have been banned.
A series of social media ads were posted in the run up to Christmas last year, with the hashtag #ElfBehavingBad.
However, after receiving 85 complaints the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled that they are offensive and should not be posted again.
The ads showed a toy elf in sexualised positions with other toys, and were posted on an ‘untargeted medium’ – meaning that children could see the photos.
Poundland bosses said that their campaign, based on the 2005 kids’ book The Elf on the Shelf by Carol Aebersold and her daughter Chanda Bell, was based on ‘humour and double entendres’.
They claimed they took time to formulate the ‘double entendres’ in such a way as they would ‘not be understood by children’, and said tha tFacebook and Twitter had policies which banned under-13s from having accounts.
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They also said that a poll of 12,000 Twitter followers found that 82% supported their social media campaign, that 33million people had viewed the ads, and that Poundland had gained 43,000 new followers since the start of the campaign.
The majority of people had found the ads ‘humorous, engaging, and in line with what it meant to be British’, the budget shop claimed, and that it did not set out to offend anyone.
But the ASA rejected these arguments, banning the elf from being used in future ads.
Which Poundland ads were deemed offensive by the ASA?
Among the posts complained about were:
- A toy elf using a bottle of de-icer to draw a pair of breasts on a car windscreen, with the caption reading ‘Oh Elf, we know it’s nippy outside but not that kind of nippy!’
- The elf in a sink filled with bubbles with two female dolls, with the caption reading ‘Rub-a-dub-dub, three in a tub. A night of “Selfies and chill”.’
- An elf with a toothbrush between its legs while ‘moving back and forth’, with the caption reading ‘That’s one way to scratch that itch. That’s not Santa’s toothbrush is it?’
- The toy elf fighting Darth Vader with a vibrator, with the caption ‘Buzz off Darth, my lightsaber is bigger than yours’
- A photo of the elf sitting on a toy donkey’s back, with the caption ‘Don’t tell Rudolph, I’ve found a new piece of ass’
- The elf next to a drawing of a phallic-shaped tree, with an accompanying caption reading ‘That’s one very prickly Christmas tree’
- The toy elf with an arrow pointing to its stuck-on moustache, with a caption reading ‘Free moustache rides… first come, first served’
- The elf playing strip poker with two naked female dolls and one naked male doll, with the caption reading ‘Joker, joker. I really want to poker’
- A toy elf holding a teabag between its legs with a female lying beneath, with the caption ‘How do you take your tea? One lump or two?’
In a statement, the ASA said: ‘The overall campaign was based around puns and double entendres, which included sexual references.
‘Poundland’s Facebook and Twitter pages were not age-gated and could therefore be seen by anyone.
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‘Although we did not consider they were likely to be of particular interest or appeal to children, we did not consider those who were already following the pages would expect to see seuxal or offensive content.
‘We also noted the ads had been shared widely on social media, and therefore would have been seen by a large number of people – including some children – who did not actively follow Poundland on social media.’
The ASA went on to pinpoint specific images that had caused offence, including one of an elf drawing a picture of a penis-shaped Christmas tree, and another of an elf ‘thrusting a toothbrush between its legs’.
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An ad showing an elf waving a vibrator, and another with the caption ‘my lightsaber is bigger than yours’, were found to be ‘obvious references to sexual acts’.
And two images – one showing the elf playing strip poker, and another of the elf holding a teabag between its legs with a female doll lying beneath it – were found to ‘present the female dolls in a manner which could be seen as demeaning to women’.
‘We considered the depiction of a child’s toy in relation to such sexual references and acts in a medium which could be accessed by children was irresponsible and likely to cause serious or widespread offence, therefore breaching the Code,’ the ASA ruled.
‘The ads must not appear again in their current form. We told Poundland Ltd to ensure that their advertising was presented with a sense of responsibility and did not cause serious or widespread offence.’
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