Saucy dog head ad complaint dismissed

British advertising regulators have dismissed a complaint against an ad that portrayed terrier-headed playboy "Trevor Mountleg" and sexual antics in the presence of animals.

The commercial, for Electronic Arts' Sims 3 Pets, has the hybrid creature describing what players can get up to in the game.

"Are you an animal person?" he says, waving a hand over his mansion as an entourage of full-blooded dogs drink water from a golden toilet. "Well, not like me, because most people are made up entirely of person. And if you're a person person, then you'd be missing out on the duality of life. With the Sims 3 Pets you can have a pet or be a pet."

"You can play both ways, and there's no shame in that," he continues, as a dog watches a couple dive into an opulent bed. "So, go on, experiment. Chase some tail. Lick your paws. You naughty little minx. Play with life."

After receiving complaints, the Advertising Standards Authority determined that the ad was clearly "silly" and unlikely to cause serious or widespread offense.

"We acknowledged some viewers might find the content of the ad, in particular the scene of the couple on the bed, distasteful," it says in its assessment, "but considered most viewers were likely to interpret it as being light hearted and mildly suggestive."

ASA Adjudication on Electronic Arts Ltd [ASA]

• [OldBrownSquirrel]

  Where do they draw the line? Explicit yiffing?

• [irksome]

  So the Brits have a device which can determine silliness?

  This is clearly a threat. Has anyone informed the Pentagon?

• [Robert Baruch]

  “Now, I’ve noticed a tendency for these ads to get rather silly. Now I do my best to keep things moving along, but I’m not having things getting silly. Those two last ads you did got very silly indeed, and that last one about the dog was even sillier. Now, nobody likes a good laugh more than I do…except perhaps my wife and some of her friends…oh yes and Captain Johnston. Come to think of it most people like a good laugh more than I do. But that’s beside the point. Now, let’s have a good clean healthy outdoor ad. Get some air into your lungs. Ten, nine, eight and all that.”

  (with apologies to Monty Python)

• [lknope]

  “Sexual antics in the presence of animals,” so the complaint is about a dog being in the bedroom during sexy time?

  WHAT ABOUT THE PUPPIES???

• [Mister44]

  Speaking of animal people, here’s the video to “Big Bad Wolf” by Duck Sauce. It is NSFW, unless you work at home, and it’s very weird.  But they take the idea of men being controlled by another animal to a different place than I have seen before. OH – I can’t make sense of it, but a dogs head on a person made me think of this. 

  I can’t remember if this was posted here or at io9, but enjoy.

  ETA – oh, the link… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGRQGm4-A4k&feature=player_embedded

• [IronEdithKidd]

  Dogs like to watch.  What’s wrong with that? 

• [Benjamin Morris]

  Ha! I recognize this house. In fact it was in another commercial a few years back, the Verizon one with Michael Bay http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXRCf9LbLM0