Eunice Olsen hopes for more conversations around ad ethics after Circles.Life incident

Local celebrity Eunice Olsen (pictured) told Marketing in a statement that she has "never intended to profit" from lodging a police report over the Circles.Life billboard ad, which featured her name without her knowledge and permission. Olsen clarified that she lodged a police report to take a stand on the matter as "it is severe using someone's name without permission and also objectifying a women in an ad.""I have never wanted to pursue legal action because this is much bigger than the company, and I think it is a conversation around ethics in advertising. I hope that something bigger can come out of this, as advertising is a very powerful platform that influences behaviour, and I'm sure we can still sell products with good and powerful messages, while being edgy at the same time," she added.Last Thursday Olsen took to Instagram to share her views on the Circles.Life ad, which was part of its Epic Invite campaign, calling it a “misappropriation of identity” and that the “sexist” post was “derogatory, disrespectful, distasteful and is a cheap shot at a publicity stunt.” She added that advertising such as the one by Circles.Life send "wrong message" while reinforcing stereotypes about women.Circles.Life has since apologised for making Olsen feel uncomfortable, saying that it was "never intended". The spokesperson also told Marketing then that it is pulling the ad and will learn from the experience. The billboard campaign was to promote its new feature named Discover, which allows customers to explore events happening around the city, personalised on their interests.