Two Canadian municipal transit authorities have pulled Virgin Mobile ads after complaints from consumers that they were too racy.
Virgin has just wound down its “Hook Up Fearlessly" campaign, which launched in December for the Christmas season. The ads showed couples kissing in various locations, including board rooms, parking garages and elevators. The campaign is part of its over-arching “Fearless" brand position, created by agency of record Juniper Park.
Soon after launching them, Mississauga, Ont.’s transit authority took down two ads after receiving customer complaints. On Thursday, Calgary Transit followed suit.
Ron Collins, spokesperson for Calgary Transit, told Sun Media the ads were deemed “a bit too provocative."
The banned ads show men with their hands placed either high on a woman’s exposed thigh or on her backside.
“It’s quite interesting for us because these are the sorts of images people are bombarded with every day," said Nathan Rosenberg, chief marketing officer, in a response to Sun Media.
“We love the work," Rosenberg later told Marketing. “It’s engendered a discussion, which is a healthy thing."
Calgary Transit also reviewed a third ad that showed a man holding a women who was more fully dressed, but allowed it to remain up.
After news of the bannings broke yesterday, some blogs incorrectly reported that Calgary had banned other executions within the same campaign.
Xtra.ca, the online component of Toronto’s gay community magazine, claimed one of the ads was banned because it showed two men kissing. At press time, the post appeared on the front page of Google searches for “Calgary transit" and “Virgin mobile."
However, the gay kiss execution never ran on Calgary Transit, though it does appear in the city in wild postings. Xtra.ca has since updated its story.
“Because the campaign is over now, what’s running is mostly bonus stuff anyway," Rosenberg said. “If we were still paying to run ads, we would have sent [Calgary Transit] the gay ad as a replacement," as Virgin did when Mississauga Transit pulled its ads in December.
Rosenberg said he has heard no complaint about the gay ad from Mississauga Transit.
Virgin is currently readying for the February launch of its next campaign.
