A BurgerFuel advertisement has been ruled by the Advertising Standards Authority as offensive, sexually explicit, and likely to cause offence.

Advertisements for BurgerFuel and a specialist trucking firm have both been deemed as objectifying women by the Advertising Standard Authority.

BurgerFuel and Wills Contracting breached community standards with advertisements that used women's bodies to sell something.

The Wills Contracting advertisement, which was broadcast online and ThreeNow, showed two men discussing one wife's breasts in relation to the commercial lifting services offered by the Taranaki-based company.



The wife catches the men talking about her and suggests they will need the lifting equipment to get them out of their dilemma.



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Complainants said the advertisement was degrading and belittling to woman, and were offended by the stereotype of a nagging wife.

SUPPLIED University of Otago lecturer Dr Rebecca Stringer says the BurgerFuel and Wills Contracting ads are targeted towards a patriarchal society.

The complaints board unanimously voted that the advertisement had no sense of social responsibility. A majority of the board said the advertisement was likely to cause widespread offence and was not saved by humour.

The BurgerFuel advertisement showed a caricature printed on serviette tins of two pin-up style women wearing only knee-high fishnet tights, with one holding a cleaver and one holding a knife.

It included the BurgerFuel branding and logo and said, "Death before bad burgers".

Complainants said the advertisement was offensive, not appropriate for a family restaurant, had no relationship to the product, and promoted the inappropriate sexualisation of women.

New Zealand National Council of Women chief executive Terese Tunnicliffe said advertisements objectifying women were happening too often.

"In some ways you could say it's surprising that these ads are still being made and shown," Tunnicliffe said.

"We like to think of our country as being a fair and just place for all, but there is a gap between what we think equality is and the reality," she said.

"The reality is that ads like this constantly reinforce gender stereotypes and advertising has a huge impact on what we see as the norm," she said.

The board ruled the advertisement to be offensive, sexually explicit, and likely to cause offence.

University of Otago lecturer in gender studies Dr Rebecca Stringer said: "A sexist visual culture that objectives women supports inequality in society."

﻿"It just reinforces the substantial inequalities that are out there."

BurgerFuel said the image was artwork and was not intended to influence consumers, did not use sexual appeal to sell a product and was not degrading to women.

It said the nudity in the image was consistent with a child's doll, but was not targeting children and was unlikely to cause serious offence to anyone.

Stringer said the ads were targeted towards a patriarchal society.

"If men are systematically owning and earning more than women, even though women are great consumers and the shoppers of the human race, it really is still men to whom businesses are appealing financially because they own and earn more."