- The ARB found LekkeSlaap’s airport advert offensive and pulled it from broadcast after complaints from viewers who said it normalised harassment of women.
- The commercial depicted a man repeatedly following and interrupting a woman who clearly expressed discomfort. The Board stated that this would be considered harassment in real life.
- While LekkeSlaap claimed the ad was light-hearted and funny, the ARB ruled that humour cannot justify behaviour that makes women feel unsafe or undermines their dignity.
LekkeSlaap, one of South Africa’s largest online booking platforms, is facing strong criticism after its latest advert was found to trivialise harassment.
The ad, styled as a comedy sketch, features Tali, a popular influencer from Tali’s Wedding Diary, filming herself at an airport to promote LekkeSlaap’s travel deals.
“Hey guys, I’m travelling with LekkeSlaap,” she tells her phone while walking through the terminal. A man sitting nearby suddenly leans into her shot and interrupts: “Kruger! Man, I love that plek!” The situation quickly escalates. As Tali continues filming, the man repeatedly appears behind her, correcting her pronunciation, “Amanzimtoti!” and “Hermanus!”, each time becoming more intrusive.
Despite Tali’s growing irritation and clear requests for him to stop, he persists, following and commenting even as she tries to get away. Eventually, when she says she just wants to “LekkeSlaap in peace,” he pops up one final time, cheerfully announcing he’s going to the same hotel.
For many viewers, this supposed humour felt uncomfortably close to real-life experiences of being followed, interrupted, and ignored by men who don’t respect women’s boundaries. One complainant said the advert “makes light of situations that have turned fatal for many South African women.” Another commented it was “promoting and trivialising behaviour that mirrors how GBV and femicide cases begin.”
Brand says it was all comedy
LekkeSlaap’s parent company, Tripco (Pty) Ltd, defended the ad as “light-hearted situational comedy.” The company said both characters, “Hannes,” the overzealous LekkeSlaap superfan, and “Tali,” known for being dramatic, are already familiar to audiences.
The company argued the ad portrays a comical misunderstanding between two quirky travellers rather than harassment. It said the female character “asserts her boundary” and that there is no threat, violence, or sexual undertone. LekkeSlaap also claimed that most online reactions were positive, seeing the ad as “a funny and relatable moment about travel.”
Regulator says humour is not a free pass
The Advertising Regulatory Board disagreed. The Board stated that, while the advert was intended as a joke, it still depicted behaviour that could be seen as harassment.
“The unfortunate reality is that women travelling alone are vulnerable and often harassed,” the Board wrote. “Whatever Hannes’s intentions, his actions taken together would likely constitute a form of harassment for the average ‘reasonable’ woman in that situation.”
The ARB noted that Tali’s face showed “a level of discomfort that could be read as fear.” The man’s decision to follow her and mention he would be staying at the same hotel “would be a fairly ominous thing to hear in real life.”
The ruling added that the defence of “it was just a joke” mirrors the dismissive responses women often receive when they speak up about unwanted behaviour. “Humour or parody are not excuses if the underlying depiction is problematic or harmful,” the Board stated.
Although not all Board members agreed, the majority ruled that the ad violated the advertising code on offensive content. The ARB instructed its members not to show or distribute the commercial again.
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