Blow-up Bob's unsolicited erection leaves customer furious

When Blow-up Bob introduced himself and his 13cm erection to Kay Horn‚ it didn’t end well.

Horn was outraged that a pop-up ad on her Yahoo account‚ from Price Check‚ exposed her to what she considered “highly offensive pornographic material”.

She complained to the advertising watchdog about the ad for the R370 inflatable doll — in “body safe PVC material” and packaged with a “USB bullet” vibrator — and asked that “stringent punishment” be administered.

Horn told the Advertising Standards Authority she was angry with Price Check for sending her “unsolicited pornographic content and for risking the innocence of children and causing offence to the public”.

Price Check told the ASA directorate it employed a third-party company to serve personalised online display advertisements to consumers who had previously visited its website.

“In order to prevent improper advertisements from appearing‚ [Price Check] categorises the products‚ including products of a sexual nature‚ and the service provider automatically blocks those advertisements by referencing the categories‚” the directorate said on Monday.

“Unfortunately‚ on rare occasions‚ inappropriate advertisements can get through the service provider’s screening. This kind of occurrence is generally as a result of the incorrect categorising of the product.

“[Price Check] advised the directorate that as soon as it became aware of the incident‚ it immediately blocked the advertising and notified the service provider.

“[It] then apologised for offending [Horn and confirmed that it has no intention of displaying such images to children or any consumer who has not searched for similar-natured products.”

The ASA said that because Price Check had removed the advertising and undertaken not to show similar material to customers who had not searched for sex toys on its website‚ no further action was required.