Lamb and Co Property has been forced to remove an ‘offensive’ poster advertising its services after a complaint against the firm was upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
The poster, seen in January 2022 at the entrance of Waterglade Retail Park in Clacton, featured an image of a sheep, alongside large text which stated “What the flock you looking at?”, with the word “flock” emphasised in gold font. Underneath this, text stated “We’re baa-rilliant at getting your property noticed too”.
Independent agent Lamb and Co, which has five branches in Essex, said that the aim of the ad was not to cause offence. They said that, since launching, they had built their brand identity upon wordplay with their name, and that their brand was known locally for using sheep visuals and sheep terminology to convey their business to consumers in a unique way.
Lamb & Co said that there was no ambiguity with the use of “flock” and that it was seen alongside other sheep references such as “baa-rilliant”, which was also emphasised in gold font, as well as a large image of a sheep. They believed the tone in which the word “flock” was used had a positive emphasis, and conveyed humour and cheekiness, rather than a negative or derogatory tone associated with expletives.
The agency that the ‘positive tone’ of the advert was reinforced by the large image of the sheep, which had its tongue sticking out.
However, the watchdog upheld the complaint after concluding that the advert was offensive as the word “flock” – relevant to the brand identity of Lamb & Co – as it alluded to the expression “What the **** are you looking at?”.
ASA considered that “****” was a word so likely to offend that it should not generally be used or alluded to in advertising, regardless of whether it was used in a playful manner.
The advert must not appear again in the form complained of. ASA told Lamb & Co Property Ltd to avoid using words or phrases which were likely to cause serious offence.
Comments (9)
I’d have told them to flock off, personally.
Ewe shouldn’t have done that.
Another Agent making themselves busy due to a bit of tongue in cheek advertising that they cannot come up with themselves or do people really have nothing better to do?
I would have thought in Clacton the word Flock (or Flocking) is used as an every day hesitation marker in the same way the rest of us use, Um, Er, or Erm. Also used as part of the first question in every Essex pub quiz; ‘who the flock you looking at’….
Yes in my pub the word is used all the time – not a gastro pub a real drinking pub
I cannot see how on earth anyone can be offended by that.
I remember in the Rugby world cup my partner came to the pub with a French Connection T shirt that said **** the Rugby – what about me! Not one person was offended! Nor was I
Oh I think you severely underestimate the easily offended nature of today’s Karen’s…
Personally, I agree with you. But we live in an age where people claim to be offended by… well literally anything these days.
Ah the thing is I am sure they are often not actually offence whatsoever
They just pretend to be offended so that they appear to be oh so woke to their friends.
These idiots should come to my local pub and hear the banter there is they want to know see how real working people talk to each other in the real world rather than spend their lives on a phone being brainwashed.
When French Connection started adding **** to their t-shirts, etc, I stopped buying their clothes. The ASA may have done them a favour.