Ad watchdog bans Marriage Alliance Twitter post featuring woman with rainbow noose
The Ad Standards Board has banned a controversial social media ad suggesting same-sex marriage will increase suicide because people who are against it will be bullied over their views if it becomes law.
The image, which depicted a woman with a rainbow noose around her neck, was posted to the Twitter feed of Australian anti-gay-marriage group Marriage Alliance in early February and was accompanied by text that read “same sex marriage increases PC bullying in the workplace”.
Complaints against the social media post argued it is “totally inappropriate and against community standards to depict suicide in an advertisement”.
Marriage Alliance does raise a valid point. It is possible that some people will bully bigots in the workplace.
Is “ban” correct here? Looking at the ASB’s decision, they found that the tweet violated standards, but my understanding was that compliance with those standards is voluntary and the ASB doesn’t have ban power as such.