Steel Panther have just executed a fabulous marketing coup that will engender anger from womens groups but sell a whole lotta records in the process.
The poster promoting their new Album " Balls Out" has been banned in the U.K when the independant advertsing regulator "Advertising Standards Authority" deemed it unsuitable for publication.
In classic " Takin the piss" style, the artwork may well be over the top when not taken in the context of the Steel Panther M.O. The bands record company denied that folks would take it seriously and as such that it did not undermine woman, however did admit that they should have scrutinised the placement of posters in public a little more rigourously.
The ASA upheld the rulling to ban the poster, advising that although the poster was not meant to cause offence or seem demeaning to women they considered it overtly sexual. Here are their reasonings;
'We noted that the pose of the woman showed her with her legs apart, her hand between her legs and her breasts partially exposed and considered that her facial expression was suggestive of an orgasm and sexual activity. In addition to this, we considered that the album title "Balls Out" was sexually suggestive particularly when viewed in the context of the poster, where the woman was seen dangling two silver balls between her legs in a way that we considered was suggestive of male genitalia."
The ony place you will now be able to see the album artwork in the U.K is if you go and purchase a copy of the record. Enough said, slippery marketing (no pun intended) works a treat.
