Wish.com reprimanded for penis advert on video games aimed at children

Online retailer Wish.com has been displaying an advert showing an animation of a cartoon penis being put in an extender strap sold on the website, on video game apps aimed at children.

This represents the third time in five months that the US company has been found to have breached UK authority the ASA’s (Advertising Standards Authority) rules. In each of the previous cases the online retailer has failed to provide a response to complaints.

Both Zynga’s Crazy Cake Swap and Ketchapp’s 2048 apps featured the controversial advert and both have a PEGI age rating of three which means they are suitable for ages three and upwards.

Ketchapp believes it is not responsible for the content of adverts on it’s apps but it has raised the age rating of all of it’s apps in response to the complaints it received.

The ASA has ruled that: “We considered that given the content of the apps, they were likely to have a broad appeal to all ages including children. The ad must not appear again in an untargeted medium”.

The ASA does not have the power to issue fines.

The advert was also found on the Peel Smart Remote television remote control app.