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‘Appalling taste’: Foxtel to remove bestiality billboard

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Foxtel has apologised and said it will on Wednesday night remove a Kings  Cross billboard depicting bestiality that was “clearly in appalling  taste”.

The prominent billboard advertising the Foxtel arts channel Studio is   currently placed on William Street in Kings Cross and depicts a man  simulating  sex with a pig.

A spokesman for Foxtel said that the billboard ‘‘was intended to provoke, but  is clearly in appalling taste and demonstrates a lapse of judgment by Studio and  a failure in the approvals process at Foxtel”.

‘‘Once senior management at Foxtel became aware of the nature of the image we  instructed Studio to remove and replace the billboard,” a statement said.

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‘‘Foxtel regrets any offence that has been caused.’’

Chris Keely, general manager of the of the Studio channel, told Fairfax  Media: ‘‘While art can sometimes be divisive or provocative, we certainly did  not intend to upset anyone with this campaign.

“We apologise for any offence that was caused by the billboard.

“We will be immediately replacing it overnight.”

The image was taken from an episode of the British television mini-series  Black Mirror, by Charlie Brooker. In the episode, a princess is  kidnapped and her captor demands that the British prime minister have sex with a  pig on live national television before she is released.

The show is screening on the Foxtel channel Studio as part of its “Festival  of WTF”.

Earlier on Wednesday, Wendy Francis, of the Australian Christian Lobby, said  the prominent billboard was distressing and inappropriate, especially for  children.

“I’m in my 50s. I’m big enough and ugly enough, but that’s really  distressing. My stomach actually turned,” she said of the billboard.

“The damage is already done. It’s already up now, it’s got media attention.  This is exactly what these advertisers want. They know this is damaging  children. They know that this is not normal behaviour. They know that it will  create attention.

“They are not thinking of our society, of children being confronted by adult  concepts. And these are adult concepts that are not even normal.”

Ms Francis, a former Family First candidate for the Senate, said the  billboard was a prime example that self-regulation within the advertising  industry was not working.

She predicted it would be quickly removed “but not before they get the media  attention they were after”.

“They would have every intention of offending and knowingly breaking rules,  but they do it anyway, and there’s no penalty for their misdemeanour,” she  said.

In 2011, Ms Francis lobbied to have safe sex advertisements removed from bus  shelters but they were reinstated after a public outcry.

Tim Allerton, managing director of Sydney-based City Public Relations, said  the shock tactics used in the billboard were a desperate bid for attention.

He said David Ogilvy, the British advertising executive hailed as the “father  of advertising”, and other advertising greats would be “rolling in their graves  at such a paucity of imagination and creativity in advertising”.

“It appears that campaigns like this show the agency has run out of ideas and  is just looking for shock and PR value from a shocking image,” he said.

“Agencies are heading down a slippery slope as they go for more shocking  images in desperate attempts to get our attention.”

The Advertising Standards Board have been contacted for comment.



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