Too much Va Va Voom? Renault advert featuring close-ups of burlesque dancers is banned by watchdog because it 'treats women like sexual objects'

Supermini advert sees car surrounded by gyrating, scantily-clad women

A car advert featuring scantily-clad burlesque dancers has been banned after watchdogs branded it sexist.

They were concerned that it featured ‘a number of shots of the women’s breasts and bottoms, in which their heads were obscured’.

The way the women had been presented in the Renault Clio advert ‘invited viewers to see them as sexual objects’, it was ruled.

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Non merci: A raunchy new advert for the Renault Clio has been banned by advertising watchdogs who branded it sexist

The Advertising Standards Authority, who were alerted by just one complaint, has now banned the advert – which appears only on the internet – after rejecting the French car-maker’s contention that it was a parody of a typically French Moulin Rouge-style cabaret scene.

They ruled it was ‘sexually provocative’ and ‘objectified the dancers by portraying them as sexual objects’.

On these grounds they concluded it was ‘therefore likely to cause serious or widespread offence’ – even though it has been viewed 3.5million times on YouTube and received just one complaint.

The advert shows a customer and a salesman taking a Renault Clio super-mini for a test drive. When they stop at a junction the driver is told to ‘hit the Va Va Voom’ button on the dashboard, a reference to the slogan long used to advertise the car.

At this, a stage backdrop of the Eiffel Tower is lowered and a Parisian street scene, complete with accordion music unfolds.

Then a group of scantily-clad cabaret dancers comes out and performs seductively in front of the car, with some slow-motion close-ups of their bodies.

As the effects of the button wear off, the customer says: ‘I don’t know if I can drive now’, and a billboard is revealed saying ‘Reignite your Va Va Voom’.

A similar advert featuring a female driver and a group of bare-chested, gyrating men, has been watched nearly a million times but received no complaints and is therefore free to continue to be aired, the ASA confirmed.

Renault denied the cabaret-style advert was ‘sexist’ but said it respected the watchdog’s decision and would comply with it by ‘censoring’ the offending scenes.

Banned: The advert shows a customer taking a Renault Clio for a test-drive before being suddenly surrounded by a group of scantily-clad, gyrating burlesque cabaret dancers wearing stockings and suspenders and red lacy bras

Raunchy: The Advertising Standards Authority concluded the advert was 'likely to cause serious or widespread offence'

The new Renault Clio advert shows the car being surrounded by scantily-clad women after the driver presses a 'VA VA VOOM!' button on the dashboard

Intriguingly, an almost exact mirror-image version of the same advert - this time featuring a woman driver surrounded by a group of hunky, scantily clad, bare-chested and gyrating men as if in a scene from the Full Monty - received nearly a million online 'hits' but no complaints and is therefore free to continue to be aired unchanged, the ASA confirmed.

Renault denied the cabaret-style advert was 'sexist' but said it respected the watchdog's decision and would comply with it by 'censoring' the offending scenes.



However, given the number of viewers, it also believed the ruling to be lacking balance and proportionality and at odds with the view taken of the mirror image advert with gyrating male dancers.

The banned advert for a Renault Clio, famous for its 'Va Va Voom' catchphrase shows a man going to a car dealership to try out a new car and being given a test-drive by a salesman.



When they reach a junction, the salesman suggests it might be a good time to 'hit the Va Va Voom' button on the dashboard.

As soon as he does, the button brings to life a montage of French cliché scenes around the car - starting with a man and woman crossing the road stopping for a passionate embrace and kiss in the middle of the road, scooters, and a brief glimpse of Nicole and her Papa from an earlier generation of Clio adverts.

Curiously an almost exact mirror-image version of the same advert featuring a woman driver surrounded by a group of bare-chested men received no complaints

As the scenery changes from London to Paris, with the Eiffel Tower in the background and French accordion music playing, the customer is offered a baguette by a passing salesman as customers take their seats at a pop-up cafe - suggesting the 'Va Va Voom' button has transported them to Paris.



The driver says 'this is mental', then 'crikey' as the string of seven burlesque dancers wearing lacy red bras and black suspenders appear before his eyes performing a string of saucy routines.

The ASA ruling notes: 'A group of women then walked in front of the car, wearing burlesque style lingerie and danced in a line in front of the car before walking towards it and gyrating and dancing around it. One woman blew a kiss to the driver.



The women then walked away in unison and the screen was moved away to reveal a billboard poster which read "Reignite your Va Va Voom".'



BANNED IN THE UK: 5 TV ADS THAT HAVE FALLEN FOUL OF THE ASA

Last month an advert for web hosting company Dreamscape Networks which featured actress Pamela Anderson wearing a bikini and being covered in cream was banned for being sexist and degrading to women.

In May a Pay Day Loan advert featuring former bankrupt Kerry Katona was banned because it appeared to suggest that it was possible to afford a popstar's lifestyle by using the lender's services. An advert for Agent Provocateur lingerie which featured singer Kylie Minogue gyrating on a mechanical bull in her underwear was deemed too raunchy for TV in 2001 but later went on to win a best cinema advert award.

A Levis jeans advert that that featured a man holding a white cane in a bathroom pretending to be blind as a woman undresses in front of him was pulled off Britain's television screen in 1995.



One of the slapstick Tango 'Orange Man' adverts from 1991 featuring the memorable catchphrase 'You've been Tangoed' was banned after it sparked a playground craze with schoolchildren slapping each other around the ears.

As the effects of the 'Va Va Voom' button wear off, the customer says 'I don't know if I can drive now' as the car passes a billboard for a Renault Clio stating 'Reignite your Va Va Voom'.



The ASA upheld the sole complaint and banned the ad from being used again in its present form, stating: 'The ASA noted that Renault felt the female dancers were just one of the iconic Parisian scenes featured in the ad, which was intended to be a light-hearted parody.

'However, we considered that the length of the scene in question, along with the change in the music and the use of slow motion shots, meant it had a different tone to the rest of the ad.

'We accepted that the Moulin Rouge was associated with Paris and that a scene that referenced it could therefore have some relevance to the theme of the ad, if not to the product itself. '



But the watchdogs noted: 'However, we were concerned that the ad featured a number of shots of the women's breasts and bottoms, in which their heads were obscured, and which we considered invited viewers to view the women as sexual objects.

'We further considered that the choreography, dress and facial expressions of the dancers were sexually provocative and that the overall impression given was not necessarily that of a parody of a cabaret show such as the Moulin Rouge, particularly as the women were seen to approach the car and gyrate around it, rather than merely performing in front of it.

'We considered that the ad objectified the dancers by portraying them as sexual objects and that it was therefore likely to cause serious or widespread offence.'

It is not the first time Renault have received complaints about cheeky advertising. A 2003 campaign for the Megane car was banned from being shown before 7.30pm after receiving 139 complaints.



It featured a series of close-ups of men and women's bottoms to the tune of the Groove Armada song 'I See You Baby (Shaking That Ass).



That had followed their tremendously successful series of adverts featuring characters 'Papa' and 'Nicole' which ran between 1991 and 1998.



The verbal exchanges, which consisted of either 'Papa!' 'Nicole' or 'Nicole!' 'Papa' were adapted from the 1966 film How to Steal a Million starring Audrey Hepburn and Hugh Griffith asfather and daughter.