1y ago

Billboards featuring OnlyFans model ruled ‘not overtly sexual’ by UK advertising watchdog

www.euronews.com OnlyFans billboards ruled 'not overtly sexual' by UK ad watchdog

Eliza Rose Watson's OnlyFans billboards have been cleared. "If a gambling or alcohol company can run their ads, which have far more devastating impacts, why not me?"

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/1891139

Archived version: https://archive.ph/OvFse
Archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20230825144949/https://www.euronews.com/culture/2023/08/23/billboards-featuring-onlyfans-model-ruled-not-overtly-sexual-by-uk-advertising-watchdog

104 comments

I've seen worse ads about perfume
- On one hand, I find nothing wrong with the photograph.
  On the other hand, I’m sick of fucking OnlyFans spam online, it’s disgusting to see more spam in real life.
  Also billboards as a whole can get fucked.
  
  I don't see how it's worse than other kinds of advertisment. We are spammed by ads everywhere. What difference does it make whether it's an OnlyFans or a car you will never buy?
- Remember jeans ads from the 90s? Jeans were all they had on!
  
  In the 2000s women were straight up having orgasms in shampoo commercials.
  
  Those were the days, B&W pictures of coked-up anorexic Calvin Klein jeans models shot topless from the back with maybe a bit of sideboob depending on where they put their arm.
  
  That’s tame. Mark Whalburg was a underwear model.
  
  *broken jeans
  
  GUESS!
- My thoughts exactly.
  They are overtly sexual.... but not moreso than many other ads.
- But is it about what’s directly on the billboard, or about what it’s advertising?
  Like, Pornhub could make a billboard with nothing risqué on it, but the fact that it’s advertising a porn website would be an issue wouldn’t it?
  Maybe not, I’m just curious tbh.
  
  A billboard would have just 'Hub' written in a yellow rectangle and we'd know what it is lmao.
- Netflix has some of the raunchiest posters I’ve ever seen
  
  Netflix has zero skill anymore. They rely completely on sex and controversy to sell shows now. Gone are the days of sell a show based on a good story.

It's no different than seeing a Victoria's Secret or Calvin Klein billboard, IMHO.
- It's completely tame. There are far more sexual images in just about any direction. It's only because people know there's actual nakedness being advertised that anyone has a problem with it. And that's just silly.
  
  People are just mad that women have a new and effective way to monetize their inherent value (^edit as a human, in a way that men can't compete as well with). they are mad because they either have moral objections, or want to deny said intrinsic value. Its a sad effect of people not loving themselves. Its also hilariously transparent when people get mad about things like this.
- Victoria's Secret
  I gotchu
  Queen Victoria and her husband (and also her cousin) Prince Albert popularized the custom of Christmas Trees in 1848 when Albert sent decorated trees to schools and army barracks around Windsor.
  Prince Albert was apparently hung like a horse.
- I'm ignorant about what content OnlyFans has. Is the woman on the billboard a porn star?
  
  OnlyFans is generally a porn distribution platform, yes. It was created with wider intent, but was taken over by amateur porn makers. You basically sign up for free, then you subscribe to people you wanna jerk off to or whatever. some accounts are free, some are paid, most offer paid content on the side, like custom requests or old videos. I help one of my friends make content for her OF account here and there; I'm happy to answer questions you have about it.
  
  The point of most only fan is to have you pay to be able to see sexual stuff

Not only did the billboard work, but now that news outlets are posting it, with her @ and all, she’s likely getting so much more attention/subs.
Genius.
- Yeah she nailed this.
  
  nailed.
  Heh
- $5 says the first complaint about the billboard came from the woman herself.

Is it a good or a bad thing when you're told your onlyfans ad can stay because it's not sexy enough?
- It can be sexy without being sexual
  
  Yeah. Like really good pizza.
  
  It is sexual, but not overtly sexual.
  I think she'd be proud she nailed the legally distinct line between selling sex and sex sells.

Environmental activists Global Witness later took over three of the poster sites and transformed them into ‘OilyFans’ billboards, to comment on the pay package of BP chief executive Bernard Looney, whose earnings went from £4.5 million (€5.2 million) to £10 million (€11.6 million) last year.
Good bit

The only problem with this is the fact that it's an advertisement. At least in the US, you cant drive down a country highway without seeing at least one advertisement for a strip club.
- You can in Vermont and Hawaii, where billboards are illegal.
  
  Hey, I did notice that driving down in Vermont, it makes for such clean looking highways and cities! We need to bring this regulation to Quebec.
  
  Maine has a similar law too I believe.
  
  Oh that's wonderful, I need to visit vermont

Come to Denmark where we have advertising on busses with full on boobs in full show. It's advertiseing for breast implants btw
- Um, link?
  
  https://www.dreamstime.com/editorial-stock-photo-female-breasts-plastic-surgery-commerical-bus-copenhagen-denamrk-april-breats-commercial-danish-publc-system-photo-francis-image90096723
  
  For science, of course.
- I was hoping it would be for something totally inappropriate like, "Look at these tits, now drink Pepsi"

Who are these people that pay for pornography?
- Who are the people who pay for netflix instead of torrenting?
  Someone has to.
  
  Guilty as charged. Netflix has a lot of good content and their app works well so I don't mind paying for it, though I still put on my eyepatch from time to time when I want to watch something they don't have.

They consulted Twitch mods and they said it's ok.

This is the best summary I could come up with:
Billboards erected in London showing model Eliza Rose Watson in underwear advertising her OnlyFans account page have been cleared by the UK regulator following complaints that they were inappropriate for children to see.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received 30 complaints stating that the posters seen in Harrow, Tottenham, Lambeth and Edgware in June and July featured adult content and were inappropriate.
ASA said that although Watson’s clothing was revealing, the image did not feature any nudity, and the pose adopted by her was “no more than mildly sexual."
“While we acknowledged that the image of Ms Watson and reference to OnlyFans might be distasteful to some, we considered that because the ad was not overtly sexual and did not objectify women, we therefore concluded it was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence.”
The ASA continued: “The ad was shown on several posters throughout London, which was an untargeted medium, and was therefore likely to be seen by a large number of people, including children.”
Commenting on the reaction to the billboards, she said: "If people are offended by my ad, I'm assuming they're also complaining about Ann Summers and Jack Daniels ones.
The original article contains 408 words, the summary contains 194 words. Saved 52%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
- Summary fails to mention who the billboards erected.
- Good bot!

Heh heh heh. They said “erected”.

So it's like, a porn advert? I kind of assumed that wasn't a thing.

Nobody will think of the children if they can't infringe on our rights to privacy and freedom, right?

If being on onlyfans constitues being a model now than I am a highly esteemed 3d enviromental designer

What a bunch of degenerates we all are. This is just sad.
- Im fascinated by the fact that people are starting to be monogamous with thier porn stars they watch.
  I might be the odd one out, but if I'm paying for porn I'm definitely getting the one that's like Netflix with a whole bunch of different shit on it.

I can't believe what I'm seeing...

What an incredibly European headline.
This is why I love America, the first amendment is dope.
Edit: It's hilarious to see the usual Lemmy leftists spazzing out in the replies. A lot of them is just them being made about grooming being banned in certain contexts, but the only thing they're materially wrong is about the general state of physical displays in America as a whole. The local policies of Florida for example aren't nationalized, they're locally specific to the state of Florida exclusively.
- Meanwhile the US bans books for being too sexual
  
  The US doesn't ban shit, individuals hand down mandates to public institutions that then tell them to go fuck themselves.
  
  The US does not ban books outright but they do ban some of them from public libraries, especially school libraries, and for good reason.
- If an onlyfans ad was on a park bench in the US it would be hung up in the courts for years and people would be sued for tainting their conservative Christian beliefs. It would be removed, and replaced with an NRA ad.
- Ha, you think a billboard in the US can put whatever they want? Try putting up a nude picture (trying to think of something that would be considered "overtly sexual") and seeing how long it stays up.
  
  “Los Angeles Apparel” billboards.
- Erm... You misjudge the implications here I think. You may read this as "Attack on free speech", but you know how Europeans are likely to read it?
  "American moral outrage bullshit tried to take hold in UK but was stopped in court"
- Oh look another American who doesn't understand the first amendment
- America seems to be a complete cluster fuck shithole of a country lately. The rest of the world is pretty dire but America seems to take the lead. When you elected a corrupt media personality to lead who is now being charged with election fraud and multiple other crimes where he tried to install himself as a dictator and a large portion of the population not only lap up his bullshit but are ready to outright kill people in his name and still believe he did nothing wrong is all the proof needed. The grooming by the church, the grooming by republicans etc just sounds awful. Now admittedly I don't live there and my only insight is from stories that make national headlines I have to believe it's not as bad as it sounds, but the majority of sane Americans I talk to don't give me much hope. Not claiming that where I am in the world is much better, but we can still say at least it's not as bad as America.
  
  European/Canadian spotted lol
- Teaching kids about reality isn't grooming. That usually happens in church.

104 comments