Controlling Sex and Decency in Advertising around the World Author(s): Jean J.

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Controlling Sex and Decency in Advertising Around the World

Jean J. Boddewyn
Ads that are indecent, sexist, sexy, exhibit violence to women or treat them as mere objects present a constant and even growing problem in many countries. Both the law and voluntary guidelines find it difficult to handle such ads because of the heterogeneity and flux of the norms bearing on sex and decency in advertising. Advertising bodies and practitioners are improving their responses to this situation which threatens their autonomy but promises to increase their effectiveness. However, these responses also generate unwelcome implications and consequences for advertising's role and freedom.

Jean J. Boddewyn (Ph.D., University of Washington-Seattle) is Professor of Marketing and International Business at Baruch College, CUNY. The useful comments of three anonymous reviewers and of the following experts are gratefully acknowledged: Rena Bartos (New York),Niquette Delage (Conseil des Normes de la Publicit6, Montreal), Maicen Ekman (National Swedish Board for Consumer Policies), Kjersti Graver (Norwegian Consumer OmbudOffice), Suzanne Keeler (Canadian Advertising Foundation, Toronto),Heidi Kunz (MBA, Baruch College), Patricia Mann (J. Walter Thompson, London),Peter Thomson (London), Prof. Dr. Christiane Schmerl (Bielefeld University, FRG),Alastaii Tempest (European Advertising Tripartite, Brussels), Chiaki Shimada (JARO,Tokyo), Sally Washington (Ministry of Women's
Affairs, Wellington, NZ) and

A constant and ubiquitous problem concerns products, services, concepts, claims and imageries that elicit reactions of distaste, disgust, offense or outrage when mentioned or presented in advertisements (cf. Wilson and West 1981). This "soft" category of issues includes matters of "sex and decency in advertising," and it is increasingly controlled-or, at least addressed-by both legal and voluntary norms around the world, although with some reluctance and much difficulty. The following sections analyze this issue by first differentiating and illustrating "soft" advertising problems. Then, the worldwide magnitude of the The next section issue is assessed, followed by various interpretations. compares the types of controls applied to soft issues, as well as their shortcomings. The dangers presented by such controls for freedom of commercial communication are further discussed. The final section deals with what advertising practitioners can do to minimize outcries, complaints, regulations and other unwelcome developments in national and international advertising. This analysis is based on a review of other studies (see bibliography) as well as on the findings of a 1988 International Advertising Association (IAA) survey of the regulation and self-regulation of sex and decency in advertising in 47 countries (Boddewyn 1989).

Professor Robert G. Wyckham (Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada). Only direct quotes and specific sources are referenced in the text, but the References section also lists general sources used in this analysis.

"Hard" vs. "Soft" Issues

Hard matters center on the deceptive character of advertisements as well as on the proper substantiation of advertising claims. Soft issues, however, are more difficult to define and handle because they reflect a large variety of personally subjective, culturally related and historically changing values and attitudes. These soft issues are acknowledged by the general principles embodied in the International Chamber of Commerce's (ICC) International Code of Advertising Practice that "advertising should be decent ... prepared with a due sense of social responsibility . .. [and] not be such as to impair public confidence in advertising" (1987). Reflecting these ICC principles, various clauses on decency, taste, public opinion and social responsibility are usually found in advertising self-regulatory codes and guidelines around the world. Besides, media vehicles have their own standards of acceptance, although they vary considerably in extent and application. Laws bearing on sex and decency in advertising are largely restricted to statutes dealing with obscenity and sex discrimination in employment ads, and to plain prohibitions to advertise certain products (e.g.,

Journal of Advertising, VolumeXX, Number 4 December1991

26

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of Adverti8ing

Table 1 Countries (Out of 47) Rating Issues as "Major"

TASTELESS/ INDECENT ADS(1 1)
Bahrain*

SEXY ADS (9) Austria

Bahrain* Indonesia*

Canada Chile *
Indonesia* Kenya*

Lebanon * Malaysia *
Philippines*

Ireland Italy Kenya * Lebanon * Norway

SEXIST ADS (7) India * Ireland Lebanon* Peru * Sweden Switzerland United States

OBJECTIFICATION OF WOMEN (9)

Argentina*

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN (6) Chile *

Lebanon*

Taiwan * Philippines* Trinidad &Tobago * United States Source: Boddewyn (1989). The asterisk (^) denotes countries that are usually classified as "developing" or "lessdeveloped." condoms and cigarettes). However, governments also exercise control over what can be advertised in the broadcasting media through their licensing of broadcasting stations and even through censorship. Among these soft issues, the "sex and decency in advertising" issue can be defined under five major subcategories derived from a review of the literature and from various industry codes-particularly, the [British] Advertising Standards Authority's code and commentaries as well as Scandinavian and Canadian documents (see bibliography). First, decency refers to conformity to recognized standards of propriety, good taste and modesty. In advertising, such standards typically cover: (1) controversial behaviors (e.g., drinking, gambling and contraception); (2) the promotion of "unmentionable" or "offensive" (Wilson and West 1981; Barnes and Dotson 1990) goods and services such as undergarments, feminine-hygiene products, funerals, toilet paper, contraceptives and massages; (3) the communication of messages about cigarettes, alcoholic beverages, pornographic materials, violence-ridden films and comic books as well as other "mentionable" items whose consumption is nevertheless considered undesirable by some groups or the government; and (4) the use of tasteless images, vulgar language and offensive appeals. Among the other four subcategories, sexism concerns distinctions which diminish or demean one sex in comparison with the other-particularly through the use of sex-role stereotypes. It partakes of the broader contemporary concern with derogatory references to sex, race, age, social status, handicaps and the like. Sexuality is about the use of sexual imagery or suggestiveness ("sexiness") as the primary attention-getter for ads, but its use is sometimes combined with the depiction of violence against women in advertising. Sexual objectification (or reification) refers to using women (mostly) as decorative or attention-getting objects, with little or no relevance to the product advertised. These last four categories are combined here under the heading of "sex in advertising." By focusing on decency and sex, this analysis does not cover other "soft" advertising issues such as the encouragement of unsafe behavior (e.g., fast driving), the stimulation of materialistic appetites (particularly in poor countries), the exploitation of children and other "vulnerable groups" (e.g., new mothers in developing nations), and the undue use of fear in advertising (e.g., to sell insurance policies and burglar alarms).

Austria Brazil * Lebanon* Portugal Singapore * Spain Sweden Switzerland

New Zealand Spain Trinidad &Tobago * United States

How Big a Problem?

The 1988 IAA survey inquired about the salience of the above five problems in 47 countries. Most of the scores were bunched around the middle, suggesting that these issues are alive and somewhat growing but unlikely to explode in the foreseeable future. As Table 1 shows, a larger number of developing countries (15) than of developed ones (11) rated one or more of these issues as "major;"Ireland, Lebanon and the United States figure in at least three of the columns; and "tasteless/indecent ads" generated the most mentions (11)-particularly in developing countries. National statistics about the magnitude of the sexand-decency problem are scarce or hard to interpret

December 1991
for lack of reference points. Pressure groups often invite their members or the public to send in an avalanche of complaints so that the latter's numbers vary considerably from year to year. Conversely, many people may be offended by sexist, sexy and indecent ads, but they do not know how to complain or hesitate to do so. Committee reports are sometimes biased by the composition of their membership, while even objective studies are uncertain about ultimate goals so that progress is difficult to measure (cf. Wyckham 1987). Still, some statistics are available. * In the United Kingdom, 8.3 percent of the 8,447 complaints received in 1989 by the self-regulatory Advertising Standards Authority related to print ads thought to be distasteful, indecent or in some way offensive. Of these 701 complaints, 34 percent (or about 4% of the grand total) alleged that an ad was offensive by reason of the manner in which it depicted or referred to women. The number of such complaints was higher in 1988 (929), but it is declining, although a recent survey revealed growing public concern about the treatment of women and nudity in advertising (ASA 1990). * In English Canada, the Canadian Advertising Foundation upheld 23 complaints in 1989 in relation to "taste, opinion and public decency" (Clause 16 of the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards), versus 4 in 1986, 24 in 1987, and 1 in 1988. Eleven out of 66 relevant complaints about sex-role stereotyping (to which separate guidelines apply) were upheld in 1989 (vs. 22/36 in 1987 and 21/178 in 1988)-mostly in connection with the inappropriate use of sexuality in TV commercials. The 1989 increase in upheld complaints was related to the inappropriate use of reliand to the in advertising gious symbolism sexualization of children in ads for adult products. * In Brazil, some 400 complaints were received in 1987 about 100 ads thought to be permissive or immoral. The advertising self-regulatory body, CONAR, condemned four of these ads on grounds of excessive nudity- possibly in reaction to various proposals to include severe restrictions on advertising in the new Brazilian Constitution. * In response to. a request for ads felt to be sexist, the National Swedish Board for Consumer Policies received 450 samples in one month of 1986.

27
lem countries, for example, tend to frown upon all kinds of body displays as well as upon direct and even indirect sexual references. Similar Christian standards operate in such conservative countries as Ireland, Mexico and the Philippines. However, some of the objections raised against sexy ads are not related to traditional morality but refer instead to a new set of norms, as is revealed by this quote from a recent Norwegian-government position paper: The expression "offensive"does not relate to moral norms on which, for instance, the maintenance of decency, modesty or of the proprieties is based. The decisive issue is whether the marketing venture in question (e.g., an ad) offends the dignity of the sexes. It does not necessarily imply a ban on nudity in ads. However, an ad depicting a naked woman, but with her breasts and sexual organs blackened out, might well be acceptable from the point of view of modesty, but remain offensive to the dignity of the sexes (Melgard, no date, pp. 5-6). Standards vary among nations, but they can also
be heterogeneous within the same country. Thus, Ca-

Interpreting

Patterns and Trends

Among the main constants and variables bearing on the issue, religion and other value systems are crucial in defining and sanctioning sex and decency in advertising (cf. Gilly 1988, Reid et al. 1984). Mos-

nadian commercials about feminine-hygiene products generated much opposition in the English part of the country, while French Canadians were much less concerned about these ads. In the United Kingdom, the television standards applying to foundation garments have been relaxed without generating much opposition, while the introduction of feminine-hygiene commercials in 1986 prompted many complaints. The issue of sex and decency is also in flux. On the one hand, moral conservatism is strong again in the United States where advertisers have recently been pressured to stop airing commercials on shows and other programs considered objectionable by some viewers and pressure groups (cf. Freedman 1989; King 1989). The feminist movement, by insisting on the equality of the sexes, has generated a fierce discussion and some reduction of sex-role stereotypes in advertisements (cf. Gilly 1988; Heslop et al. 1989; Michell and Taylor 1990). On the other hand, the recent concern about AIDS has allowed generic commercials and posters about the use of male contraceptives and other forms of protection (including abstinence). Still, there is little movement yet toward the regular advertising of branded contraceptives on the major network stations because vocal conservative groups oppose ads for products which explicity acknowledge sexual activity (branded condom ads are allowed in other media, however, in some countries). All Arab countries oppose the use of sexuality in advertising, but discreet ads for sanitary napkins can now be shown in Bahrain, Dubai and Lebanon, al-

28 though not in Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Technological developments have also been operative. Thus, the multiplication ofold and new media is spreading some issues to new locales as countries like Norway and Sweden are finally allowing television commercials which, like posters, generate more reactions than other media because of their higher intrusiveness (cf. Shaw 1989). The greater number and variety of publications, commercial broadcasting stations (including cable television) and direct-mail advertisements are now providing more vehicles for various controversial goods and imageries which used to be turned down by older media, including government-controlled television and radio networks. Altogether, it is difficult nowadays to attack "the indecency of desire" so abundantly found in materialistic and egotistical modern societies, but much easier to accuse those who use it for commercial purposes (cf. the heated discussion between Pollay [1986] and Holbrook [1987] about advertising's role as "a mirror of society"). The problem is constant, but it is repeatedly rekindled by new products, new communication technologies, and new periods of conservatism. Complaints, pressures and demands about this issue have been around since the dawn of modern advertising, and they will not go away-notwithstanding the advertising industry's defense that they are too subjective, unrepresentative or unmanageable, or that the freedom of truthful and accurate commercial communication is paramount.

Journal of Advertising
"At what point does hyperbole offend? How much ridicule is acceptable? When does a provocative dress become a transgression? When does a play on words become an unacceptable double entendre? When does a portrayal stop being sexy and start being sexist?" Media acceptance officers constantly struggle with such dilemmas (cf. Lipman 1987; Valan 1987). Furthermore, the multiplication of ads, their bunching in some time slots, and the similarity of themes and treatments are often the real sources of the problem. A few controversial ads now and then may only irritate a tiny minority of people, but too many commercials for sanitary napkins, for instance, often generate a major outcry. This situation also helps understand much of the feminist criticism against sex-role stereotypes in advertising. It was the relentless showing of women as concerned with cleaner washes and shinier floors-valid concerns by themselves-that made them complain about such limited and condescending "images of women" in advertisements. Even the removal of some types of commercials from particular time slots, where children could see them, can backfire. This has happened in Canada where ads for feminine-hygiene products were bunched in late-evening time slots, with the result that viewers complained about seeing too many of them.

Controlling Sex and Decency in Advertising

Soft advertising issues, including sex and decency, are difficult to control-short of outright bans and government censorship, which are not uncommon at all. There are still "Ministries of Information" in various Moslem and autocratic regimes (e.g., in Malaysia, Singapore and Saudia Arabia) that must be consulted beforehand and can suspend offending publications, while the advertising of various products and services (contraceptives, casinos, cigarettes, etc.) is prohibited in many Western countries. Less extreme yet effective means of control are available, however (cf. Boddewyn 1986, 1988 and 1989).

Practitioners'

Contributions Problems

to the

Many problems stem from the inappropriate place-

ment of ads. What is tolerated in Playboy magazine, with its special audience, is often controversial when seen on television or posters - particularly, in the case of billboards located near schools and churches. This is an example of narrowcasting generating fewer problems than broadcasting. Food and detergent commercials shown in the evening have generated more antisexist outcries than in the context of daytime soap operas, where showing women preparing meals and doing the dishes by themselves is less likely to offend homemakers than a broader sample of women watching television at night. While there are blatant cases of indecent and sexist ads (e.g., nudie calendars distributed by industrial suppliers), complaints often center on subtle problems of execution and interpretation (cf. Barnes and

Community and Market Reactions

The most basic ones are based on community and market reactions since advertisements that offend too many people or particular target segments will result in wasted advertising expenditures, while more sensitive advertisers will be economically and socially rewarded. Activists tend to spurn such simple remedies, but they often work, at least in the long run.

Dotson 1990). As Wyckham (1987, p. 86) pointed out:

December 1991

29
public opinion and decency" in such matters as the advertising of feminine sanitary-protection products and the treatment of women, sex and violence in advertisements (cf. Wyckham 1987). Most ASR bodies stand in between, occasionally agreeing to handle soft cases on the basis of the general principles they apply-particularly when gross breaches of societal standards occur, as in matters of obscenity, racism and denigration. ASR systems intend to improve the quality of advertising, but they refuse to evaluate its raison detre and overall societal impact, even though some tasteand-opinion issues straddle both of these objectives (e.g., offensive ads are likely to alienate people against advertising and thus impair its influence). Such "macro"issues are gladly left by ASR units to capstone organizations (e.g., the American Advertising Federation and the [British] Advertising Association) and to trade bodies (e.g., in the liquor industry). Those ASR bodies that accept taste-and-opinion complaints tend to refer to prevailing public attitudes and values rather than to emerging or ideal ones, and they concern themselves only with the content and tone of an advertisement (e.g., "Is it decent?") rather than with whether the product itself (e.g., cigarettes and condoms) or advertising in general may cause offense. A report from the British self-regulatory Advertising Standards Authority illustrates this kind of problem: We take the view that while our "Decency"complainants have every right to hold the views they do, they really cannot expect us to impose them upon the rest of the population, unless it is probable that they too will share the complainants' offence. This is particularly important where the objectionis not, in truth, to what the advertisement says, but to the product being advertised. We can offer no comfort for objectors to kissograms, sexy underwear, adult videos and the like. (ASA Case Report No. 148, August 1987) ASR bodies have discovered that newer issues such as sexism are still inchoate so that it is difficult to discern where prevailing but changing societal standards lie exactly between the complaints of vocal feminists and the silence of most women (cf. ASA 1990). Several ASR systems have set up investigative committees; they dialogue with concemed groups, and they issue reports and general guidelines, but the latter have not yet been fully operationalized so that they cannot be readily used by complaint-handling panels. Other issues such as sexuality, contraception and abortion keep polarizing public opinion to such an extent that no middle-of-the-road standards

Self-discipline
Many advertisers and agency people pay attention to industry and company norms and they heed complaints, even though creative types tend to resent restrictions on artists, point to the necessity of stereotypes in very short commercials, and stress the fine line between aesthetics and erotics. Many media vehicles and their acceptance officers have criteria for accepting or rejecting ads for certain products and executions although their specificity and application vary considerably (cf. Lipman 1987; Parsons et al. 1987; Rotfeld and Parsons 1989; Rotfeld et al. 1990; Valan 1987)- particularly the broadcast media which are much less in control of their audiences and whose existence depends on government licenses. Self-discipline thus plays a rather important role because advertising (with a few minor exceptions such as handbills) does depend on agencies and media (including postal services) whose screening role tends to be cumulative (cf. Zanot 1985).

Advertising self-regulation (ASR)

Self-regulation is well developed in only some 20-40 countries, but a number of them have strengthened their voluntary codes and guidelines regarding sex and decency in advertising-notably, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden (where an Ethical Council has recently been created) and the United Kingdom (cf. Boddewyn 1986 and 1988; Miracle and Nevett 1987). The voluntary self-imposition of standards and the acceptance of their peers' judgments by advertisers and agencies help raise the quality of advertising and its responsiveness to current concerns on the grounds that all practitioners suffer when ads are criticized. There are limits, to be sure, to what the industry is willing to do in this regard. It is very reluctant to ban the advertising of legal products and services because there is no end to objectionable goods: cigarettes, alcoholic beverages, sweetened candies and cereals, fatty foods, toys, condoms, and so on. Self-regulation also finds it difficult to react when the problem is not associated with any particular ad but with the cumulative impact of many similar ads-as has been particularly evident in the case of sexuality and sexrole stereotyping (cf. ASA 1990). A few ASR systems refuse to handle soft complaints and limit themselves to hard matters of "truth and accuracy"(e.g., the U.S. NAD/NARB system), while others accept "aste and opinion"complaints and even specialize in them, as in the Federal Republic of Germany. The Canadians have agreed to cope with "taste,

30 are possible, except when great shocks (such as the AIDS epidemic) recast the issue in a different light. Besides, accepting taste-and-opinion complaints complicates the functioning of ASR systems and increases their costs. Most hard complaints can be handled in a fairly routine manner by ASR secretariats and adjudicating panels, but soft ones increase the latter's load and the overall cost of the system by requiring more study and consultation. Moreover, soft issues often prove divisive within the industry, and/or they expose self-regulation to criticism for either hesitating to assume new responsibilities or for coming up with vague guidelines. These issues also bring up the difficult problem of including non-industry members ("outsiders")in order to broaden the perspectives of self-regulatory bodies (Boddewyn 1988).

Journal of Adverti'sing
mented through advertising self-regulation. Scandinavia has been particularly active in regulating sexism. Norway's Marketing Control Act was amended in 1979 to require that advertising "does not conflict with the inherent equality between the sexes and does not imply any derogatory judgment of either sex or portray a man or a woman in an offensive manner." Iceland has legislated against sexist ads, and similar regulation will be considered again in Finland in 1992. In Sweden, the Consumer Policy Act of 1986 deals with that issue, and an amendment to the Marketing Practices Act is under discussion. The advantages of legal remedies are that the interdictions are specific and the sanctions are potentially drastic: cease-and-desist injunctions, fines, denial of postal privileges, non-renewal of broadcasting licenses, etc. However, laws are much harder to change than voluntary guidelines; practitioners tend to limit their compliance to the letter of the law rather than to its spirit; and those officials charged with uncovering and adjudicating transgressions face very difficult problems of judgment, outside of clear-cut cases of sex discrimination and obscenity. Hence, governments often fear to tread on this difficult terrain and prefer to leave sex and decency issues to industry. Thus, the British Office of Fair Trading stresses in its publications that it cannot act if the complaint is about taste or decency. The 1988 IAA survey did not reveal much prosecution based on laws which often sound very strict and forbidding, although Norway and Sweden are now handling complaints rather flexibly in the context of their Consumer Ombudsman systems. Government pressures or threats are frequent, however (cf. Nevett 1986).

Government Regulation
State intervention is advocated by those who distrust other forms of social control and/or want to translate social causes into laws. The banning of sex discrimination in employment ads provides an obvious example of such an approach. In Canada, adherence to a set of industry guidelines on sex-role stereotypes is now a condition for obtaining a broadcasting license. Regulation is also important when self-regulation is absent or underdeveloped and when the local culture feels threatened by foreign messages (Nevett 1986). Thus, in Malaysia, the Ministry of Information's Advertising Code states that "women should not be made the principal object of an advertisement, and they should not be used to attract sales of a product unless it has relevance to women." In Saudi Arabia, no advertising depicting veiled or unveiled women is allowed by the Ministry of Information in native publications and broadcasts. A 1986 Indian law forbids the "indecent representation of women,"that is, "the depiction in any manner of the figure of a woman, her form or body, or any part thereof, in such a way as to have the effect of being indecent or derogatory to or denigrating women, or is likely to deprave, corrupt or injure the public morality or morals." A Peruvian decree forbids ads that "discriminateon grounds of race, sex, social condition, religion, cultural level, economic situation or physical defect,"while a 1983 Portugese Law-Decree prohibits sex discrimination, the subordination of women, and their objectification in advertising. Since most ASR codes start by stating that "all advertising must be legal," such regulatory enactments are also imple-

Control Applications
Whether used by government or industry, the means employed against objectionable ads are multiple: (1) censorship in a few autocratic regimes; (2) the clearance of ads, which is used by all media vehicles to some extent and which is imposed through self-regulation on cigarettes in the United Kingdom and on feminine-hygiene products in Canada; (3) warnings (long used in film ratings); (4) the adjudication of complaints by courts and self-regulatory bodies; (5) the application of various penalties-particularly withdrawal or modification of the ad and exclusion from the media (mostly used by self-regulatory bodies), while fines and other criminal penalties are exceptional; and (6) the education of advertising practitioners.

December 1991
The sensitization of practitioners is the favorite tool of advertising associations and self-regulatory bodies, in lieu of harsh penalties. The multiplication of conferences and reports on sex and decency in advertisements augurs well for higher standards in this area, even though awareness and explicit consideration of voluntary codes are relatively low (cf. Wyckham 1989). As was mentioned before, the role of the media is crucial since they want to achieve a good fit between advertisements and programs and to avoid offending their audiences. However, they are sometimes inconsistent in applying vague standards (cf. Lipman 1987; Parsons et al. 1987; Rotfeld and Parsons 1989; Rotfeld et al. 1990), and they may overreact to pressures from vocal groups (cf. Freedman 1989). The motivated decisions of some private and public bodies are available. They help understand the rationales used for control, but they also illustrate the subjectivity of the issues and of their handling. * The Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman Office, applying the Marketing Control Act, objected to a print ad juxtaposing one man and three women modeling a bathrobe and tee-shirts: "The female bodies are shown in exaggerated and provocative postures. The bodies are exploited to attract attention. The portrayal of the women has completely different emphases and can be clearly distinguished from the portrayal of the man in the same advertisement: he is merely displaying a product and not attempting to use his body to reinforce the message." Media acceptance staffs often have to grapple with such fine distinctions. * The British Advertising Standards Authority reported the following case: Basis of Complaint: Fifty-two members of the public objected to an advertisement in the national press for the Hoover turbopower vacuum cleaner. This was headlined "Who's built a turbo for women drivers?" The complainants found the advertisement to be offensive in suggesting: (a) that housework is exclusively a task for women, and (b) that women are unlikely to be interested in driving a turbo-charged car. Conclusion: Complaint not upheld. The advertisers stated that the headline to which objection had been taken had been the subject of qualitative research. Of the structured sample of women who had been shown it, only two had raised even mild objection. [The self-regulatory body] had been consulted and, while pointing out the inevitability of some adverse comment, had taken the view that the advertisement did not contravene the Code [of Advertising

31
Practice, Clause B.3]. Nonetheless, the advertiser, in the light of the possibility of some offence being caused, had prepared an alternative headline and this had been substituted when it became clear that, in a few cases, the offence felt apparently went deeper than mere distaste. The Authority considered that the extent of the offence that had been caused was not such as to bring the advertisement into conflict with the Code. They commended the agency for its readiness to accommodate the sensitivities of the minority who had been offended. It is worth noting that this advertisement had been pretested, checked with the British ASR body, and found to be in compliance with the ASA Code. Also typical was the advertiser's response to modify the controverted ad, after assuming the risk of being challenged by some members of the public. * The French self-regulatory body (Bureau de Verification de la Publicite) objected to a billboard ad showing three young children with their pants down and their buttocks exposed: "We consider this ad as contrary to fundamental self-regulatory rules concerning respect of the human person in general and of children in particular. This poster could also be considered to be in violation of Article R38-9 of the Penal Code, concerning decency." This last comment illustrates the application of the law by self-regulatory bodies.

Should Sex and Decency in Advertising Be Controlled?

Mandatory and voluntary controls applying to sex and decency are now firmly in place in quite a few countries, and they are likely to grow. Their rationales-to protect public morals as well as the integrity and effectiveness of advertising-are broadly accepted by many practitioners. Yet, the control of soft issues by governments and voluntary bodies raises troubling questions about the freedom of commercial communication, the role and impact of advertising, and the nature and origin of the controls.

Freedom of Commercial Communication

Government regulation of advertising curtails the rights of advertisers to communicate with their publics and of people to receive information about products. This is a complex issue pitching those who distrust advertising and conceive of practically no limits to what can be prohibited or restricted by law against those who promote "freedom of commercial

32

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speech" as essential to the functioning of the market system (cf. Preston 1980; Rotfeld 1982). In countries where freedom of commercial expression is relatively well articulated and implemented, various bans against the advertising of certain products and services have been challenged. Thus, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against a ban that prohibited sending unsolicited direct-mail ads for contraceptives because this prohibition restricted the free flow of truthful information under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment's guarantee of free speech: "The government may not reduce the adult population to reading only what is fit for children"(cf. Neuborne 1987). The Council of Europe's European Convention on Human Rights has been applied by the European Court of Human Rights against several advertising prohibitions (cf. Bruce et al. 1986; Lester and Pannick 1984), while amending the Swedish Marketing Practices Act to extend its coverage to sexist advertising would probably require modifying the Constitution and the Freedom of the Press Act, which afford some protection to commercial speech. For those who promote freedom of commercial speech, the control of soft advertising issues of the sex-and-decency type should be left, for the most part, to the Community and the Market (see above) as well as to the self-interest of practitioners since offensive advertisements will be rejected by many media or will antagonize consumers and the public anyway. They argue that dragging in the public interest on the ground of "protecting public morals" or of "enhancing the dignity of the sexes" only empowers various pressure groups and elitist regulators to impose their standards on what should remain a free if risky communication process between business and its audiences. One may readily subscribe to these libertarian views. The fact remains, however, that most countries have nothing similar to the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment guaranteeing freedom of speech, or to the U.S. Supreme Court's power to protect such a right, even though there are promising developments along these lines in Europe (see above). Besides, the Community and the Market are hardly operative in authoritarian regimes and non-market economies, which prevail around the world (Boddewyn and Falco 1988). Moreover, the advertising industry, through various national and international associations, has already accepted the need for explicit principles, rules and guidelines pertaining to soft issues -both out of a sense of self-interest and social responsibility and as a way of forestalling more cumbersome and rigid legal enactments. This acceptance, however, raises

troubling questions about the role of advertising and about the standards applied to it.

Dangerous Implications Advertising's Role

for

Industry practitioners have grounds to worry about advertising being made into a scapegoat for society's problems and into a vehicle for their solution. Advertisements often invite people to improve their life and to imagine themselves in more satisfying situations in the context of particular branded products and services. However, it is another matter to require commercial advertising to be an agent of social change by forcing advertisers to: (1) exclude from their ads women that fuss, men that ogle, children that ask for toys, and people that drink or otherwise indulge, and (2) foster "better" images of men, women, families, leisure, health and happiness. Advertisers may choose to promote certain lifestyles and avoid others out of personal conviction, in the context of voluntary codes, or because they are paid to do it-as in the case of public-service advertisements against the use of illicit drugs and cigarettes- but they object to being coerced into doing it. Another dangerous implication associated with the control of soft issues is that it undermines the industry's position that advertising is about brandsan argument used by the tobacco and alcohol industries (among others) to oppose the notion that advertising fosters "generic" behaviors such as smoking and drinking. When voluntary codes and guidelines stress that ads should not show people speeding, overindulging, embracing, undressing, inhaling, imbibing and the like, they are really endorsing the view that advertising shapes general behavior, besides promoting particular brands. This is a very complex issue because consumer behavior is affected by numerous factors whose individual impact is hard to untangle. Still, when industry accepts the legitimacy of soft issues of this kind, it ultimately offers a new weapon to those who stress and criticize advertising's societal impact.

Questionable Standards
A further problem concerns the origin of the standards pertaining to sex and decency in advertising. In developed countries, they tend to emanate from the upper-middle-class and better-educated people that staff government bodies, pressure groups, professional associations, media acceptance committees, and voluntary complaints boards. Such an "Establishment" or elitist bias is bound to warp the perception and treatment of current issues and values. Thus,

December 1991
when sexy ads are criticized, have young people to whom they are usually addressed been consulted? When crude humor is at stake, have lower-class people been asked what they think of it? In practically all cases, middle-aged upper-class bourgeois, who are not avid watchers of television nor regular readers of the more popular tabloids and lurid magazines, are the arbiters of what constitutes "good taste" in advertising or are the source of most complaints. Thus, a recent British survey of reactions to advertising (ASA 1990) mentions that complainants are more likely to be women, members of the upper/middle classes with a higher education, readers of quality newspapers, less avid watchers of commercial television, vegetarians, and participants in voluntary organizations and pressure groups. Similarly, there is a danger of "cultural imperialism" when Westerners ridicule the strictures imposed in some Moslem countries against showing women in non-traditional roles or with their face, arms and legs uncovered. Double standards are also evident. It has been remarked that the most blatant commercials are bland, compared to what appears in television programs ripe with lust, violence, greed and other cardinal sins (cf. Lipman 1987; Shaw 1989). Even ads in sex magazines are tamer than their editorial content (cf. Langrerh and Caywood 1989). Of course, programs and stories are only meant to entertain, while advertisements exhort and encourage people to acquire the promoted products. Besides, people generally choose what they view and read, while ads are thrown at them in largely unpredictable manners (Brozan 1987; Shaw 1989). Still, holding advertising to higher standards than those applying to other expressions of fact and opinion can be questioned. New standards also create displacement problems. Thus, there is some evidence that men are portrayed unfavorably now that women have begun to become "untouchable" (Freedman 1989; Goldberg 1989; Jung 1989). These reports point out that, while it is no longer acceptable to make fun of women, men are now the subject of rough treatment and insult in advertisements.

33
one hand, sexy and gross advertisements do help sell some products and do not necessarily offend target audiences (Levine 1990). On the other, they can tum people against particular ads and against advertising in general, thereby blunting their intended impact and threatening the industry with lesser societal acceptance and more burdensome controls. This analysis has established that problems and solutions related to sex and decency in advertising vary considerably around the world and that they are too heterogeneous and fluid to warrant simple generalizations about what to watch for in any particular country or region. Such heterogeneity and fluidity also militate against the "globalization" of advertisements when certain products and appeals are involved. Hence, advertising practitioners are well advised to consider the following practices, besides informing themselves about current conditions in various countries (cf. Wilson and West 1981; Wyckham 1989a and 1989b): 1. Identify target audiences and appropriate media (and their timing) more carefully in order to minimize antagonizing non-users of the products. 2. Educate employees about the relevant rules, and ascertain that agencies and media know and apply them, too. 3. Pretest ads in terms of sex-and-decency reactions, and check them in advance with the media, self-regulatory bodies and other relevant advisors. 4. Defend the freedom to advertise legal products, lobby against fuzzy legal restrictions, and participate in self-regulation in order to reduce the dangers associated with mandatory controls. 5. Consider "demarketing" particular products and services as well as abandoning advertising approaches based on sex and other objectionable appeals - after all, some industries and companies prosper with little advertising or rely on more socially acceptable themes. This course of action, however, should be a matter of choice rather than an obligation. If, as the French say, good taste rests on a thousand distastes ("legout est fait de mille cdgoults"),it will take multiple initiatives originating from many quartersprivate and public, commercial and non-commercialto constantly realign the practitioners' compass toward what is both appropriate and effective when new problems related to sex and decency in advertising emerge and fester around the world.

Conclusion and Implications

Advertising, like other societal institutions, must operate within culturally defined and time-bound constraints. When norms vary and change, so must advertising, lest its effectiveness be impaired or its freedom be restricted. "Sex and decency in advertising' offers a difficult challenge to advertising practitioners and to those who control advertising. On the

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