MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil wants to ban controversial ad campaign showing super model in knickers

”You are Brazilian, use your charm”

Brazil's ministry for women has called for a TV advertising campaign showing supermodel Gisele Bundchen in just her underwear and high heels to be banned

The advert shows the world’s highest paid model telling her husband bad news such as she has crashed the car or exceeded a credit card limit.

Clips showing her making the confessions while fully clothed are followed by the Portuguese word for “wrong” flashing up on the screen.

But clips in which she owns up while clad in knickers, a bra and high heels are followed by the word for “right” appearing.

“You are Brazilian, use your charm,” adds a voiceover.

Now, the ministry has asked Brazil advertising authorities to ban the advert for Hope Lingerie, which it says “reinforces the erroneous stereotyping of women as sex objects”.

It “ignores the progress made in ending sexist practices. It also represents discrimination against women,” the ministry added in a statement.

The TV commercials send a message “that sensuality can melt any man” and “encourages Brazilian women to use their charms to minimize the reactions of their husbands,” the ministry said.

As well as complaining to advertising authorities, the ministry has also written to Sylvio Korytowski, the director of Hope Lingerie, to protest about the campaign.

The company said in a statement that “the examples were never intended to seem sexist, but rather of the everyday life of a couple.”

It said it had opted to use an internationally successful woman such as Bundchen to avoid being seen to show any bias towards “subservience or financial dependence of women”.

Last year, Brazil’s ministry for women managed to ban a beer advert which showed hotel heiress Paris Hilton rubbing a can of beer over her body in suggestive poses to the delight of onlookers watching through a window.