Sheffield Student Advert Banned After Promising Students 'You're Going To Get Laid'

Advert Promising Students 'You're Going To Get Laid' Is Banned

Organisers of a student club night have been rapped by the advertising watchdog for promising freshers they could "get laid" every Tuesday.

The Eat My Disco promotion, which appeared on Facebook and a flyer, showed a young woman clad in a cropped top with a speech bubble coming from her shorts, stating: "You're going to get laid!"

It was banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after it was found to link alcohol with sexual success.

The ad, seen on September 12, offered students "£1.50 drinks all night" and featured a variety of pictures of young people in the club.

The ASA challenged the promotion on the grounds it breached guidelines by linking alcohol with sexual success and sexual activity and featured people under 25 in a prominent position.

"We considered that the statements "Get laid!" and "You're going to get laid!" were clearly intended to be humorous references to attending the event with a view to finding a sexual partner," the watchdog concluded.

"We noted that the ad also stated "£1.50 drinks all night" and we considered that, by including a reference to alcohol alongside the sexually suggestive text, the ad breached the code by linking alcohol with sexual success and sexual activity."

One objection, voiced by a complainant who claimed the ad was "offensive and irresponsible" because it appeared to depict youths under the age of 16 and "sexualised children", was rejected by the watchdog.

In response, Eat My Disco (EMD) said nobody under the age of 18 appeared in the ad.

Defending its cheap drinks campaign, it insisted it had not linked alcohol to sex and said its drinks prices had been cleared through licensing authorities in Sheffield.

But the company admitted the speech bubble coming from the girl's shorts was an "error" and should have been shown coming from her mouth.

It agreed to change the promotion by removing the images of models in cropped tops and shorts.

The ASA accepted the ad appeared on a Facebook page accessible only to fans of EMD and had been distributed as a flyer in student unions and halls where the majority of recipients would be adults. It said the promotion was "unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence".

But it acknowledged it was likely to be "distasteful" to some and ruled the ad should not appear again in its current form.

It warned EMD to take more care when preparing marketing strategies relating to alcoholic drinks.

Advertising guidelines state promotions which refer to alcohol should not feature people who are - or appear - under the age of 25 in a "significant role".

"We noted, however, that the ad included the price for alcoholic drinks at the event and considered that the majority of the people pictured in the ad featured prominently and looked under 25," the ASA said.

"We noted that EMD could only provide an assurance that the people were over 18. We therefore concluded that the ad breached the code on this point."

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