One sure sign of the everyday institutional sexism that men face in today's society can be seen by the recently banned advert created by Hyundai and the laughable advertising agency Innocean Europe who said they are "a company that espouses strong family values" (Innocean Europe is owned by the chairman and his daughter...)
Hyundai claim they knew nothing about it which is a lie. No company allows an advertising agency to produce and broadcast an advert (online or not) and no one at the organisation sign it off.
The sickest thing about the ad is not the ad per se, it is the fact that the creatives and executives at both Innocean Europe and Hyundai actually came up with the idea, then created it, then broadcast it. Did no one stop and say something.
How could anyone come up with such a sick idea and think it was funny (and of course would they ever reverse the genders). Well someone did and it shows that people thought it was OK to do so. And these are not people without a brain (supposedly), they are running one of the world's biggest ad agencies and car companies.
With three out of every four suicides being a male and with both the Men's Health Week and International Men's Day being about mental health and health respectively (and of course CALM), both Hyundai should sponsor these and Innocean Europe should create an advert for International Men's Day/Men's Health Week or CALM as a penance.
Posted by Skimmington
PS Read Holly Brockwell's open letter
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