A brand ambassador for the 'world's slimmest smartphone' has quit after the company's TV ad was banned for 'objectifying women'
The ad, created by Ogilvy & Mather, aimed to showcase the Kazam's Tornado 348. The black and white footage featured a woman in only her underwear, slinking through a house. Complainants to the UK's advertising watchdog claimed it was overtly sexual and objectified women, and because the content bore no relationship to the advertised product. It was banned for its likelihood to cause "serious offense" on the grounds that it objectified women.
Hansson (who does not appear in the ad) only became a Kazam brand ambassador in 2014 but contacted Business Insider to say that she is relinquishing her role.
She told us over email: "Although I have been brand ambassador together with [former N-Dubz singer and 'X Factor judge] Tulisa Contostavlos I will now leave the brand as I'm not into objectifying women and I have always been about empowering women and teaching them about confidence and how to succeed in life."
Here's Hansson posing with Tulisa at a Kazam launch event in December 2014.
She told us: "Although I [was] proud to be Kazam's brand ambassador, truly believe, and use the product on a daily basis and as my main medium of communication, I do not condone the method in which they have decided to go about advertising in an overtly sexual manner that unduly objectifies women - especially concluding in the belief amidst many that the model was indeed myself, which is NOT the case."
Hansson added: "As a matter of fact I am shortly to launch a business which focuses on female empowerment, confidence, and elegance, and I see myself as an ambassador for women all over the world and want to encourage women to do their best.'
Business Insider has contacted Kazam for comment and will update this article once it has been received.
Here's the banned TV ad led to Kazam being rapped by UK advertising watchdog the Advertising Standards Authority.