UK's Advertising Standards Authority bans geisha photo
1 October 2009
The Advertising Standards Authority has banned an ad shot by Japanese photographer Araki Nobuyoshi, claiming the image of a bound geisha 'had cause serious offence to some readers'
The ads were shot for Bisazza, an Italian designer of mosaic tiles, by Araki Nobuyoshi, ‘one of the most provocative, and sought-after, Japanese photographers,’ the company says. Three ads were published in the international press, including Vogue, The World of Interiors, Elle Decoration and Wallpaper in the UK.
The three ads led to 11 complaints being filed against Bisazza at the Advertising Standards Authority. The complainants challenged whether the ads were ‘offensive, because [they] seemed to condone sexual violence against women’ or where ‘demeaning to women.’
In its testimony to the ASA, Bisazza strongly disagreed with the complaints. ‘Bisazza pointed out that the ads featured no nudity, innuendo, wounds or scenes of excessive perversion,’ according to the ASA.
Vogue also testified in front of the advertising authority arguing that it didn’t regard the ad as offensive since, culturally, Japan had long abandoned the bondage tradition. Wallpaper said the Japanese photographer who shot the ads was known for challenging the social taboos surrounding sex and death and received critical attention both at home and abroad, the ASA says. ‘Wallpaper acknowledged that the photographer's work was controversial; it forced readers to 'stop and think', to look at their own prejudged ideas of weakness, in the context of submissiveness, and strength.’
While the ASA found that two of the ads were not demeaning to women, the remaining one, which shows a woman appearing upset, lying on her side with her kimono ridden up to expose her thighs, was offensive.
‘Notwithstanding the highly stylised nature of the ads, we considered that the creative treatment could be seen to imply that sexual violence had taken place or was about to take place,’ the ASA said in its ruling. ‘We concluded that, although it also appeared in high fashion and upmarket interior magazines, the ad had caused serious offence to some readers of The World of Interiors, Elle Decoration and Wallpaper magazines.’
The ad has been banned to appear in its current form in the UK.