This new Renault ad has just been banned for sexist content after just one complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority. However, Models Direct writers were interested to find that a similar ad – featuring male models in place of female – has received no such complaint.

The advert featuring female dancers is based around Renault’s ‘Va Va Voom’ tagline and features an unsuspecting customer pressing the “Va Va Voom button” while out on a test drive. When he/she does so, the car is surrounded by french scenes, including – in the banned ad – that of burlesque style female dancers. View it below:

So, are some people taking this ad too seriously, or is it simply too risqué for general consumption? Many staff here at MD love the concept but think that the dancing girls element went a little further than was necessary – and the ASA seem to agree. They stated that the ad, “invited viewers to see [the dancers] as sexual objects”, and cited “the length of the scene in question, along with the change in the music and the use of slow motion shots”, as creating “a different tone to the rest of the ad”.

And their report concluded: “We accepted that the Moulin Rouge was associated with Paris and that a scene that referenced it could therefore have some relevance to the theme of the ad, if not to the product itself.

“However, we were concerned that the ad featured a number of shots of the women’s breasts and bottoms, in which their heads were obscured, and which we considered invited viewers to view the women as sexual objects.

“We further considered that the choreography, dress and facial expressions of the dancers were sexually provocative and that the overall impression given was not necessarily that of a parody of a cabaret show such as the Moulin Rouge, particularly as the women were seen to approach the car and gyrate around it, rather than merely performing in front of it.

“We considered that the ad objectified the dancers by portraying them as sexual objects and that it was therefore likely to cause serious or widespread offence.”

Models Direct can’t find any footage of the ad that features male model/dancers but can only assume that the male dance wasn’t quite as provocative as the female one.

What do you think about this latest banned Renault offering?