The Advertising Standards Bureau has upheld a complaint from Wendy Francis from the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) over Dunlop's '#Grassroots' advertising campaign.
The tennis-themed ad featuring a lot of semi-naked bodies and skin contact - while also promoting safe sex - led to objections from the ACL activist, claiming the the R-rated images violated "kid's innocence."
Francis bought more attention to the campaign than perhaps she would have liked after posting a status on Twitter, criticising it as being inappropriate for children before submitting a complaint to the censorship body.
Submitting a complaint in early January detailing "nude people in sexual positions, suggestive poses of naked people, condom-wrapped tennis racquet to promote Volley shoes", the Standards Bureau decided to uphold the submission with the company forced to alter its campaign.
Despite heavily promoting safe sex and sexual equality, Dunlop was forced to remove a number of images that were judged to have violated advertising rules.
"Subsequently, the #Grassroots landing page / links of the 'Volley' website including remainder of the #Grassroots images have been permanently removed and we confirm that no #Grassroots images will be redeployed on the 'Volley' website," Volley stated in response to the ruling.
The original video can still be found on YouTube, with viewers required to certify their age before viewing.
The ACL, meanwhile, are still on a crusade against the company, with managing director Lyle Shelton asking Dunlop for an apology for the "offensive, misogynist" tweets directed at Francis.
