David Baddiel once did a routine about the word ‘felching’. His argument ran thus: he wasn’t able to say the word ‘fuck’ on the BBC even post-watershed, but he was able to to reference felching – a word that refers to slurping ejaculate out of the anus of a sexual partner – because no-one knew what it meant, despite the fact that it referenced something incredibly filthy.
The cant, hypocrisy and irony inherent in this contradiction was both interesting and absurd, argued Baddiel, who also noted that the word was on a swear frequency so high that Mary Whitehouse couldn’t hear it.
I can’t help but feel the same way about this Muller yoghurt advert, in which a woman gets her clitoris blasted with sperm and has an orgasm. It’s often alleged that women masturbate using power showers directed at their love buttons, and I really find it hard to believe that this isn’t what’s being referenced here. The fact that a man is blasting a woman’s genitals with high-pressure cum from a big hose is almost incidental.
Compare and contrast with the new Confused.com advert, in which a man if fairly openly receiving a blowjob while in a car. As Baddiel might have said, it seems to be on a rude frequency so high that the ASA are oblivious.
Perhaps we’re all maintaining some stiff upper British lips on this and assuming a kind of group myopia; pretending that none of us think there’s anything beastly going on here. But, let’s be honest, we all know the score – and advertisers have obviously cottoned onto the possibilities it offers.
It will be interesting to see where the ASA draws the line.