Pole-dancing mum given green light

Pole-dancing mum given green light

Even a child knows green monsters do not really exist, and UFOs do not fly around our cities, right?

Wrong, says the Advertising Standards Bureau, which has upheld complaints against a McDonald's television commercial, because it encourages children to accept lifts from space aliens.

Scantily clad pole-dancing mothers, on the other hand, are acceptable vehicles for advertising fast-food chicken, the bureau's board has ruled, despite numerous complaints that described the ad as pornographic, degrading, sexist and idiotic.


Of the 31 ads subject to formal complaints this month, 28 were cleared by the board. But two of the three ads where the complaints were upheld were by McDonald's, with the fast-food giant being accused of sending the wrong message to children on stranger danger.

In one animated ad, a little girl rescues a kitten before accepting a lift from space aliens, then agrees to "pick up dad along the way" to McDonald's for a meal.

According to one complainant, the ad condoned getting in a vehicle with strangers. "They may be aliens but they are still strangers," the complaint reads. "In the ad they pick up dad along the way, but what is to stop a would-be abductor using the same ploy and saying 'Oh, it's all right. We will pick up your dad along the way' as a way to get the child to get into the car?"

McDonald's defended the ad, saying it portrayed a fantasy world. "As everyone knows, even children know green monsters don't exist and UFOs do not fly around the city. We were feeding the imaginations that we know every child has …"

But the board found the ad had breached the Children's Television Code, because it portrayed an unsafe situation that could encourage children to engage in a dangerous activity.

Complaints against another McDonald's ad, which showed children being rewarded with a meal after retrieving a stranger's ring from a drain, were upheld for similar reasons.

Defending multiple complaints against its ad, another fast-food chain successfully argued the level of nudity used "was essential to ensuring authenticity". The ad shows a topless pole-dancing mother using fictitious "Nando-fix" skin patches and gum to control her craving for Nando's chicken.

"The concept is to show somebody who, for professional reasons, can't wear the Nando-fix patch," the company reasoned, disputing the ad was degrading to women.

Pole dancing had become mainstream, Nando's argued, citing the example of Martha, a character in Home and Away, who works as a pole dancer.

The board of the Advertising Standards Bureau agreed, ruling that pole dancing was " … a popular form of exercise" and "was not incompatible with family values". The ad "depicted a strong in-control woman who went about her work in a professional manner", because it showed her travelling to work wearing a suit, the board concluded, while the ad had not broken any rules regarding permissible levels of nudity.

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