A Frucor Suntory advertising campaign has made it into the Advertising Standards’ most complained about ads list for the first half of the 2017 calendar year.

Listed as the tenth most complained about ad, the poster promoting Sparkling OH! soft drink received 24 complaints. All complaints were dismissed.

The Sparkling OH! posters in question featured images of fruit – either two lemons, two mangos or two raspberries – and an picture of Sparkling OH! with the tag lines “*not as guilty as it looks” and “only 2g of sugar”.

Complaints submitted to the ASB included that the lemons “look like two female breasts” and that the poster “perpetuates sexist attitudes towards women”.

In response to the complaints, Frucor Suntory, which recently changed its name from Frucor Beverages, said that it acknowledges the fruits in the advertisement are intended to allude to certain male and female body parts, but that the ad was intended to be light hearted.

Frucor Suntory said the un-doctored images of the fruit and the and its tag lines aimed to communicate that the drink is made with real fruit juice but contains less than 2 grams of sugar. It said the ad did not intended to exploit or degrade any individual or group of people.

The ABS dismissed the complaints saying whilst the fruit was suggestive of breasts, it was clearly identifiable as fruit and did not humiliate, ridicule or treat women unfairly.

“The Board considered that the cheeky nature of the image was sufficient enough that it did lessen the impact of the image and did not amount to a depiction that discriminates or vilifies a section of the community on account of gender and did not breach section 2.1 of the Code,” the ABS said in its case report on the advertisements.

No other food or beverage advertisements made it into the top 10 most complained about ads list for the first half of 2017.

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