A Cape Town massage studio that included the word ”cottage” in its advertisement was not advertising casual gay sex in a public toilet, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has decided.
The ruling, posted on the ASA website on Wednesday, was in response to a complaint about a newspaper advert for Bows, a Cape Town business that describes itself as an upmarket massage studio.
The advertisement included the words ”sports/tantric, mass[age], cottage”, which the complainant believed promoted prostitution.
The ASA said the only part of the ad that might be objectionable was the word ”cottage”, as massage was legal.
”The Oxford dictionary gives two descriptions of ‘cottage’,” the ASA said. ”Firstly, it is a small house, typically one in the country. The second description is an informal word for performing homosexual acts in a public toilet.
”Given that … the [ASA] directorate finds the sexual meaning of ‘cottage’ unlikely in its current context. The more reasonable explanation is that the advertiser offers her massage services in a cottage.”
Bows owner Maria Neethling told the South African Press Association in between gusts of laughter that this was indeed what the advert meant. ”We’re situated in a semi-detached cottage. It’s simply a geographic description of where we are.”
She said she had got ”fed up” with the ASA’s queries. ”I said, ‘Are you going to ban the word ‘cottage’ in property ads as well?’ I said, ‘Shut up and go away.”’ — Sapa