TV Advert showing Pamela Anderson covered in cream banned for being 'sexist and degrading' to women

Image taken from the Dreamscape Networks television advert featuring Pamela Anderson, which has been banned for being sexist and degrading to women. (PA)

A television advert featuring actress Pamela Anderson wearing a bikini and covered in cream has been banned for being sexist and degrading to women.

The advert for domain and web hosting company Dreamscape Networks showed Anderson as a company boss chairing a meeting of men before her assistant poured cream into a cup of coffee while displaying her cleavage.

One of the men present was then shown to be fantasising about Anderson and her assistant dancing in bikinis while covered in cream, with a shot of Anderson calling out for the man in a suggestive manner.

Anderson snapped the man out of his fantasy by calling his name in a stern tone before the final scene showed her assistant revealing her cleavage again while pouring another cup of coffee.

The ad was cleared with a restriction that it should not be broadcast before 9pm.

Four viewers complained that the ad was offensive because the considered it to be sexist and degrading to women.

Dreamscape Networks said it believed the ad was "anything but degrading to women", deliberately portraying Anderson and her assistant as "attractive, dynamic and confident business people".

It said the ad took a tongue-in-cheek approach to promoting its product, adding that it believed that the majority of viewers would find it "fanciful and humorous".

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said it understood that the ad was intended to be a humorous and light-hearted parody of a mundane business meeting.

But it said the female characters were portrayed sexually throughout the ad, not just during the fantasy sequence, noting that their shirts were open to expose their bras and cleavages.

And it said the fantasy scene, although limited to the man's imagination, gave the impression that he viewed his female colleagues as sexual objects.

The ASA said: "Because of that, we considered the ad was likely to cause serious offence to some viewers on the basis that it was sexist and degrading to women."

It ruled that the ad must not be broadcast again in its current form.

PA