AUSTRALIA: Chiko chick too sexy for advertising standards

Has the Chiko roll chick gone too far? Advertising agencies think so and the billboard posters of a new advertising campaign aimed at 12 to 29 year old men have been changed. Rachel Davies, senior brand manager, defended the saucy image, saying, "We've been using the Chiko chick for 35 years. She's always been pretty scantily clad, she's always had a motorbike and she's always been holding a Chiko." Sitting in front of a motorbike, the scantily clad chickette, complete with Chiko roll between the legs, raised quite a few temperatures when her latest campaign was revealed to the public from 170 billboards on 1 September. "We didn't think there was anything wrong with the ads," added Davies, "but people were offended by the amount of flesh showing." The company's phone lines rang hot, and the Advertising Standards Bureau was inundated.Chiko, owned by Simplot Australia, has been operating for nearly 40 years. Fremantle restaurant owner Dominic Chiattini summed up the usual response to the Chiko chick: "It's exploitative in a sense but I don't mind it." Nevertheless, in a new take on the campaign, she will be much more bashful, wearing red leather astride the motorbike and holding a Chiko roll at hip level.