When Nicole Van Dijken's seven-year-old son spied a car with the words "no birds" written on its door he asked her what it meant.
It left her angry and frustrated at having to explain a slogan that she finds sexist.
Ms Van Dijken believes it should have been abandoned long ago.
Bayswater Car Rental adopted the "no birds" catchphrase after it was founded in Perth in 1958.
It referenced its competitors' practice of employing young women to deliver cars to customers, who were referred to as delivery girls — or "birds".
Bayswater did not offer the delivery service, proclaiming in its advertising that the "no birds" offering meant its service was cheaper.
In recent years, the slogan has overtaken the company's branding, with rental cars in its Western Australia and Sydney locations simply featuring a yellow arrowhead logo and the words "no birds…".
"I actually didn't even know what to say [to my son] because this is something that I really do get furious about every time I see it," Ms Van Dijken told Jo Trilling on ABC Radio Perth.
"It's a sexist slur and I'm now in a position where I need to explain that to my son. Which I did do."
Ms Van Dijken says the use of the word comes from "a shameful past".
"It's not appropriate to be referring to a woman as a bird and I don't know why it's still on there," she said.
"I think it's terrible that they've still got it there."
Research shows strong name recognition
A spokesperson for Bayswater Car Rental directed the ABC to a statement on the company's website, which explains the slogan has now come to mean a "no-frills, low-cost" service.
"These days having hire cars delivered may seem excessive. But when Bayswater Car Rental started, having 'delivery girls' was a standard extra service in Australia," the website states.
"And, of course, extra services means extra cost to go with all the extra fees car hire companies were typically charging."
The spokesperson says company research has shown that half of its customers now think of the car rental service as being named "no birds" rather than Bayswater Car Rental.
The company has also found itself on the receiving end of multiple complaints about its use of imagery in past, including a long-running poster featuring a topless woman wearing a yellow hat and the "no birds" slogan.
Ad Standards, Australia's advertising complaints handling body, has also received complaints over posters featuring a topless woman's back, a picture of Monica Lewinsky and the words "no frills".
The only complaint to have been upheld by Ad Standards was in 2000 when the picture of an Aboriginal boy, with the slogan "half the rate" was found by the panel to have breached rules around "vilification of a section of the community on account of their race".
'Offensive' branding carries cost
Melanie Wiese, the chief strategy officer at marketing communications agency Wunderman Thompson, says the company appeared to have become stuck with a branding strategy that no longer quite makes sense.
"I think originally it was a well-intentioned strategy. I think for them, internally, it means no hidden fees and great value," Ms Wiese said.
"The girl-in-the-hat ads I still remember from my own childhood. It really built awareness of their brand."
But Ms Wiese has found the prominent use of women in the brand's advertising confusing when it says "'no birds' at the same time".
"I think it probably wasn't a very clear brand strategy for them a long way through and now they're kind of stuck with it," she said.
Ms Wiese says re-branding to remove the company's slogan would be an expensive exercise, especially as it is on all its cars, premises and digital assets.
However, she said there could also be a cost to not keeping in step with community standards.
While some might not find the language offensive, Ms Wiese says it benefits brands to be inclusive and future-focused.
"Do you want to be a company that is bothering anybody, or whose name people find not just annoying, but offensive?" she said.
"If you're investing behind a brand, you want to be making sure you're investing behind the right brand.
"Particularly in the case of this company, because 'no birds' has gone from a slogan to kind of a pseudonym for this brand, when they have another brand name available to them in Bayswater Car Rental, which I assume offends nobody."
Ms Wiese says numerous companies have successfully named products or altered slogans in response to changing community standards, including Chickies and Red Ripper lollies, and Cheer cheese.
"I think all of those companies have taken the decision that if it offends anybody, it's offending too many people," she said.
"Because their job is to bring joy or to bring nourishment and therefore 'offensive' is not something you want to be labelled with."
In 2021, a financial analyst in the UK won a sex discrimination case against her former employer, Barclays Bank, after a court found that her manager's repeated use of the 'bird' to describe women constituted sexist language.
Harmless or outdated?
ABC Radio Perth listeners had a range of responses to the "no birds" slogan, with some finding it harmless and friendly:
Steve: "It was never a derogatory term as far as I'm concerned. Back in the day we called a girl a bird in a warm friendly way … unfortunately I guess it's not appropriate in this crazy PC world."
Dave: "Bayswater … had no frills service, cheapest cars against Avis and their flash "birds" that were part of their PR machine. Nothing wrong with the logo and we should all get on with life and stop being prudes and offended."
Others said the words were disrespectful and no longer appropriate.
Jack: "'No Birds' is suggesting they are cheaper because they do not carry the 'dead weight' of 'birds' … totally sexist and misogynistic."
Graham: "I'm a male, aged 48, and was explaining the history of the 'no birds' slogan/name to my teenage sons the other day. Even back in the '80s it was always the car hire company having an each way bet with their gendered innuendo. It's dated and sexist and reflects badly on the company."
Barb: "There was a very vocal opposition voiced against this when I was younger and feminist activism was finding its voice — even my mother wrote a letter to The West to object to it. I can't believe they are still getting away with using this slogan."
