Raunchy Tunnock’s Tea Cake ad featuring female tennis player banned for being sexist after ONE complaint
The poster shows a tennis player flashing her thigh and gripping the snack like a ball but watchdogs branded it demeaning to women
A CHEEKY Tunnock’s Tea Cake ad has been banned for being sexist — after just one complaint.
Watchdogs branded the poster, which shows a tennis player flashing her thigh and gripping the snack like a ball, as demeaning to women.
The saucy ad showed the woman hitching up her skirt as she held the Tea Cake like a tennis ball, including the words, “Where do you keep yours?” and the slogan: “Serve up a treat.”
The ad was displayed near Glasgow’s SSE Hydro ahead of a showcase court clash between Andy Murray and Roger Federer.
But following the single complaint, watchdogs ruled it was sexist and the Advertising Standards Authority ordered the firm, based in Lanarkshire, to scrap it.
Now baffled biscuit fans have blasted the decision, with some describing it as "completely nuts".
Shocked joiner Ally Ogilvie, 18, from Glasgow, said: “I don’t see anything wrong with it. It’s nuts that it’s been banned.”
Work-mate Colin Gillespie, 25, said: “I think it’s a cracking advert. I’ve always loved Tunnock’s Tea Cakes — and now I like them even more.”
Ex-Scotland and Celtic striker Frank McAvennie, 58, was also stunned the ad had been shelved. He said: “When did people suddenly get so offended at everything?
“One complaint about an advert and it is upheld — are they being serious? This will stifle creativity”.
Even Loose Women host Kaye Adams waded in on the debate, saying: “It looks to me like a parody of the classic Athena tennis girl poster. Maybe Tunnock’s should copy the other famous Athena poster of a man and baby — a bare chested hunk holding a box of Snowballs.”
And actress Alyson Orr, who’s appeared in a string of ads, added: “Banning anything for the sake of one complaint is a road to ruin.”
In a written ruling, the ASA said: “We considered the phrase ‘serve up a treat’ would be understood to be a double entendre, implying the woman featured in the ad was the ‘treat’, and considered this was likely to be viewed as demeaning towards women. Although the image was only mildly sexual, it had the effect of objectifying women.”
“In light of those factors, we concluded the ad was likely to cause serious offence to some consumers and was socially irresponsible.”
The ASA asked Tunnock’s for a response and the firm argued the ad had been “created with a tennis audience in mind.”
A spokesman for the company added: “The advertisement appeared to coincide with a charity tennis match.”
The biscuit firm also insisted it had not intended to offend anyone with the racy poster.
The Forrest Group, which rented to the ad space to Tunnock’s ahead of the match last November, said they had not received any complaints about the poster.
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The row is not the first time Tunnock’s has been at the centre of an advertising storm.
In 2016, it was slammed for renaming its most famous product the ‘Great British Tea Cake’.
The company ditched its Scottish lion rampant logo in an English ad campaign and bosses were branded “traitors” by nationalists who called for a boycott.
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