ADVERTISING STANDARDS AUTHORITY: ADVERTISING DOUBLE-STANDARDS AUTHORITY MORE LIKE! By ANDREW DAVIDSON

 

The UK's Advertising Standards Authority this week ruled that an advert depicting men as simple, lazy and incapable is acceptable. They said it did not cause ‘widespread offence’ even after 700 complaints.

The Daily Mail reported on the ruling concerning Homepride Ltd who are responsible for the advert for Oven Pride oven cleaner. The advert shows a man having a childish outburst after being told by a pregnant woman to clean the oven. He is then shown with a simplistic, contented expression while performing the task. This is closely followed by the tagline "Even a man can do it."

Homepride cite increaced sales to justify the acceptability of the advert and claim it was a comment on "natural gender differences". Whatever these "natural" gender differences are they do not specify. Perhaps they could make an advertisement commenting on "natural racial differences" to clarify the point. Homepride also invite women through their website to send in suggestions as to how they would "train" the man.

The ASA has a history of banning adverts it deems portray women in a negative light. Adverts portraying women as overtly consumer-driven, materialistic, vain, weak and sexualised have all been banned in recent years. However, adverts which portray men in negative ways are not banned, indeed those which which show violent physical abuse or suffering of men frequently inflicted or observed by women (often shown laughing at the man) have all been broadcast.

From the Barrs Irn Bru advert showing a man rupturing his groin doing the splits to the after two women throw ice cubes on the floor while he is doing a humiliating 'courtship dance', to numerous assaults and abuses of men in car adverts, including one where a man is thrown through a plate glass window,  have all been broadcast.

This begs the question, has the ASA been infiltrated by people with their own amti-male agenda? Men are now effectively second class citiznes in terms of representation in the media and this encourages the acceptability of violence and humiliation towards men, particularly in the home. Were the man to do these acts now broadcast across the nation, he would be arrested by the local Domestic Violence Unit and charged with criminal offences!

Have you seen an advert that portrays men in a negative light? Ask yourself "If that was a woman, would they broadcast it?". If the answer is 'no' - complain (link).

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. " - Edmund Burke

EDITORS NOTE - PLACE COMMENTS ON THE HOMEPRIDE SITE WHERE THEY WANT WOMEN TO SAY HOW THEY CAN TRAIN THEIR MAN AND SEE IF THEY PUBLISH THEM.

 

Comments

[Lorcan]

Thanks for that article.

Oven Pride is a product which is targeted at women, which means that most men can't curtail buying it as a protest. But can I suggest that since Homepride is part of the Premier Foods Group, which produces a large number of well-known brands (many of which are bought by men), this should be the target of complaints?

See http://www.premierfoods.co.uk/our-brands/ for a list of their brands. The email of their PR guy is [email protected]

Let them know that the ad is going to hurt sales - they have a statutory duty to maximise shareholder value and driving customers away puts them in breach of this duty.

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