An artificial grass company which was forced to take down an 'inappropriate' billboard after complaints were made have shot back at the 'offended' with another mocking poster. The Advertising Standards Authority - the UK's independent regulator of advertising across all media - ordered Great Grass MCR Ltd to remove their billboard in November last year after ruling that it 'objectified and stereotyped women as sexual objects'.
The ASA opened up an investigation which was fuelled by complaints and concluded the advertisement was 'irresponsible and likely to cause serious offence'. At the time, the local company responded to the backlash by saying the poster was a ‘bit of light-hearted fun and not intended to offend anyone’.
The poster features an angry face emoji followed by the number four alongside a laughing face emoji next to 40,000,000. The ad continued: “Just because you’re offended, doesn’t mean you’re right. Owner Mike Allen said: “It had been up for three months before it received three complaints. We’ve had that billboard spot for five years and no one has ever seen it but now that people have complained, everyone’s seen it.