Jarlsberg "the taste is in the holes" bumpers reported to the Consumer Ombudsman.. for sexism?

A woman in Norrköping has reported the Jarlsberg tv-show bumper idents to the Consumer Ombudsman for their "unpleasant" tagline: "the taste is in the holes."

First of all, it's misleading, the taste can't be in the holes. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized how unpleasant it was.

She elaborates: "I felt provoked. It felt like it was alluding to something sexual. Then I got angry. One wonders what sort of society we live in with this kind of attitude toward women."

She's not the only one with her mind firmly in the gutter. There's even facebook groups dedicated to snickering at how "dirty" the tagline is. There's blogposts musing on how the tagline might have been created by an intern, others go straight to the point that holes "probably taste like fish", and newspaper journalists are wondering if those who like tasteful cheese might be able to buy a bag full of holes. (Great idea, marketing - get on that stat!) It's currently the most discussed piece of news at aftonbladets bloggportal.

At Aftonbladet the Jarlsberg cheese Managing Director Magnus Ekstrand defends the ads, and find it being pigeon holed as a sexist ad rather odd. "Our cheese has more unique holes than any other cheese. Somewhere there, she chooses to form associations to something which we don't associate to."

Jarlsberg - Smaken sitter i hålen