THE PRESIDENT OF the Camogie Association has hit out the controversial Hunk Dorys crisps adverts which depict scantily-clad women playing GAA.
Joan O’Flynn was speaking after the launch of the latest ad campaign by Hunky Dorys makers Largo Foods this week in which two girls teams in gold and emerald coloured, tight-fitting bikini costumes try their hand at a bit of Gaelic football.
It follows on from last year’s newspaper advertising campaign which featured the girls playing rugby.
The hugely successful campaign, which increased the Hunky Dorys brand’s net worth by over €1 million, led to widespread controversy and criticism with the adverts subject of a number of complaints to the advertising watchdog.
And the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland has already received complaints in relation to this year’s campaign.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, O’Flynn said the ads were ill-timed given that camogie’s top teams will be in action at various levels in the All-Ireland finals at Croke Park this Sunday.
She said the ads “trivialises the talent and ability of women in sport” by focussing on their physical appearance rather than their sporting ability. She said that more “responsible advertising would focus on the skill and the ability of the players as athletes.”
The GAA has already said it was not consulted on the campaign.
Meath-based manufacturers Largo Foods, which owns the Hunky Dorys brand, has broken its silence on the controversy, CEO Ray Coyle telling the Irish Independent “we have to attract attention one way or another”.
But O’Flynn said this morning: “It may travel, and it’s a well established fact that that sort of advertising sells, but it sells on what I would call fairly poor values.”
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