Mr Manners upset by Netflorist ad 'fetishising black male genitalia'

SA's advertising watchdog was left divided over whether an advert by a florist for a gift basket was "gross in that it portrays two white people fetishising black male genitalia on public radio".

Phil Manners complained about the clip, by Netflorist, in which a woman calls a radio station hotline and has the following conversation with a presenter:

Caller: "I am looking for something for our anniversary."

Presenter: "Tell me more about hubby first."

Caller: "Well, he is half English and half Zulu."

Presenter: "Hmmmm, Zulu. Which half?"

The caller chuckles and says: "Harold, below the belt."

Presenter: "Hmmmm, lucky girl, Jane. Why not spoil him with a Moon and Back Chock Crate personalised with his name and a variety of delicious choccies. Because something tells me he's got a thing for Top Deck."

The caller chuckles again.

Presenter: "So, there you have it. There is no reason for you to be a plain Jane. Visit netflorist.co.za. Smooches."

Netflorist responded by explaining that they had used a tongue-in-cheek tone in their advertising for more than a decade.

"It has used the very colourful, exuberant, hard-to-ignore character 'Harold' who gives relationship gifting 'advice'. This 'advice' is offered to South Africans of all races, cultures, genders, sexual orientations and subcultures."

Netflorist said it never intended to upset Manners and apologised.

The advertising regulator said it was unclear if Manners was "upset by the objectification of black men or the implication that black men have larger genitalia".

The regulator also criticised Netflorist's short response to the complaint and said the ad "clearly has sexual innuendo in it".

"The implication is that the caller is 'lucky' that the bottom half of her husband is Zulu because Zulu men are known for having larger genitalia. There is no other reasonable interpretation of this aspect of the commercial."

A minority of the regulator's directorate ruled the ad to be offensive, because of the "sparse defence" by Netflorist.

"It must accept that the commercial does indeed fetishise black male genitalia and is therefore offensive."

But the majority disagreed, arguing it is was not a given that the characters were white.

"The dialogue and jokes that are used are not dependent on them being white, and the humour would work regardless of the race of these two characters."

It added the characters were not fetishising, but "this would only be unacceptable if it was done in a manner that degraded or undermined black men … Similarly, the directorate considers that there are certain stereotypes that can never be joked about, but there are others that form acceptable fodder for humour."

The complaint was dismissed.