The Australian Christian Lobby’s Wendy Francis would do well to look up the definition of the Streisand Effect, after a series of tweets yesterday reminded us all of the existence of Volleys tennis shoes (the company dropped the Dunlop bit, apparently). Francis is the Queensland state director of the Australian Christian Lobby. Her Twitter profile reads “Campaigner for the innocence of children”, and the new battle in that campaign is Volleys’ “grassroots” advertising campaign on the brand’s website, which has been around since August last year.

Francis tweeted: “Parents be aware Dunlop Volley still sell sandshoes for school kids, but their website has R rated images as they’re now ‘all about rooting’.”

The images Francis objects to, which are on the Volleys website, include this one, with some non R-rated bums:

And this one, which includes two men embracing:

The Volleys campaign isn’t new, and is part of a partnership with Ansell condoms. The website reads:

“Our campaign is all about the celebration of sexual expression whilst remembering to stay safe.
For this reason we’ve joined arms with Ansell condoms in support of safe sex, as whilst we’re all about rooting, we believe in ‘safety first’.

“So stay safe this summer and root for us, root for change, root for VOLLEY.”

Considering the low profile of the images until now, the brand is probably grateful for Francis’ outrage — a spokesperson tells us website traffic is up 275% today after the tweet.