SWATCH AD DRAWS COMPLAINTS
By Adnews Staff
Swiss-based watch company Swatch SA may have to alter a titillating Toronto billboard which apparently caused no waves in Europe and other parts of Canada, but has drawn compaints in Toronto. The ad shows the view from neck to rib cage of a woman partially baring her breasts. The headline reads, "Swatch Test No. 73. Shock Resistance." The woman is not wearing a Swatch, but one is shown at the bottom of the ad. The ad is running as a billboard in Toronto and in publications in Montreal and Vancouver. It was produced in Italy and has run without complaint in Europe, Montreal and Vancouver. Swatch Canada's agency, MacPhee Jesson of Toronto, is recommending ways the ad could be modified - all of them involving covering up the breasts. The protests came from people at two organizations whose offices are near a Swatch billboard, as well as the feminist group MediaWatch, which received complaints about the ad.