For the past several months, advertisers have scrambled to include any possible mention of the beautiful game in their summer campaigns. With England now out of the World Cup, the glut of shoe-horned references to football in ads is likely to abate. Yet before we resume "advertising as normal" on our screens and in our streets, it's worth pausing to consider a trend within the industry that World Cup-related ad campaigns have thrown into stark relief: the deliberate and widespread use of sexist material in the name of selling a product.Oh, noes! Sex sells! How can this be..?
There's nothing particularly new about advertising that plays on gender stereotypes. Many ads have a sexist and offensive tone or content.According to….well, you and your fellow harridens, I suppose.
The latest WKD ads are neither subtle nor knowing, and make no pretence that their message is linked to the product being sold. For the past week or more, every day on my way home I've had to walk past a large billboard which proclaims: "THE OFFSIDE RULE FOR GIRLS: IF THE FLAG'S UP, IT'S OFFSIDE". Every time I've seen it, an inner rage has swelled up and I've pictured myself ripping the offending poster out of our public space.But you’ve noticeably not done so.
Except, that is, today. This morning, I walked past and instead of a pristine ad glaring over me from on high, I noticed that a large chunk of it had been torn away and the word 'SEXISM' scrawled in angry black capitals along its base (it wasn't me, I promise). And as meaningless as it may sound to those who've never experienced sex discrimination and don't understand what the fuss is about, my heart soared and I got the rush of adrenaline that comes when our national team scores a cracking goal (or two). Seeing a lone person's act of defiance against the sneering sexism of that billboard, I realised I wasn't alone.No, you’re still alone. You quietly seethed about it and whined about it.
Someone else didn’t. They acted.
Now, it might well have been a wrong act, but they acted…
Not only do such ads belie the reality that women are actively involved in football (both as players and fans) in greater numbers than at any time in history. They also deliberately encourage insulting notions of women as stupid, incapable of understanding basic concepts and de facto having no part in the world's biggest sporting event simply because of their sex.Or, turning it around, they could also encourage insulting notions of men as dim Neanderthals only interested in two teams of other dim Neanderthals kicking a bit of leather around a grassy area.
Po-tay-to, po-tah-to…
What response should we make to this advertising trend? There is the guerrilla option: paintballing billboards, ripping down images, scrawling graffiti over posters. After all, stickers saying "THIS IS SEXIST SHIT" have been plastered over ads for plastic surgery in the London Underground for the past couple of years.And according to you, haven’t achieved a single thing. So I guess that rules out that approach, no matter how it makes your heart sing?
Hence Kathryn is pinning her hopes on the ASA. If only it’ll listen to her and her little coterie.
So what can be done to influence the way in which the ASA holds advertisers to account for sexist and objectifying campaigns? The first step is for consumers of these ads (that means you and me) to start complaining more.That’s it, ladies! That’ll bring down the sexist corporate beast. A letter-writing campaign!
From now on, whenever an ad makes me feel insulted, angry or intimidated on grounds of sex, I'm going to make a further complaint. We have the power as consumers to tackle the ASA on its interpretation of the codes regarding images that are sexist and/or derogatory towards women.Fantastic! Don’t forget to write them in green ink, now…
See Angry Exile for more advertising fun.
14 comments:
Oh is that how the offside rule works - I had wondered - I think we need more public service advertising like that - I am always getting confused between the rules of basketball and netball and baseball, and, well, I haven't the first clue about baseball (other than you mustn't call it rounders ) and find it quite sad that my ignorance (which probably makes me a racist) is going to remain because no one dare risk puting up any "explain the game" billboards because, obviously, that would be racist too.
Ads seem to universally portray men as morons, that's sooo sexist! *rushes off to find a pen*
Poor lass doesn't seem to understand that best way to punish a firm for an annoying ad is not buy their product. My entire family still boycot PG Tips for the ghastly chimps on bicycles that were on during every single break in the Tour De France coverage some years ago.
However, I'm sure WKD will be overjoyed to see all this free publicity she has provided them, maybe they will run a special ad dedicated to our Kath in gratitude.
The actual offside rule explained for Kathryn Perera
You're in a shoe shop, second in the queue for the till. Behind the shop assistant on the till is a pair of shoes which you have seen and which you must have.
The female shopper in front of you has seen them also and is eyeing them with desire. Both of you have forgotten your purses.
It would be rude to push in front of the first woman if you had no money to pay for the shoes.
The shop assistant remains at the till waiting.
Your friend is trying on another pair of shoes at the back of the shop and sees your dilemma.
She prepares to throw her purse to you.
If she does so, you can catch the purse, then walk round the other shopper and buy the shoes!
At a pinch she could throw the purse ahead of the other shopper and "whilst it is in flight" you could nip around the other shopper, catch the purse and buy the shoes!
BUT, you must always remember that until the purse has "actually been thrown", it would be plain wrong for you to be in front of the other shopper and you would be OFFSIDE!
;-)
Thanks QM for explain it in a context that I understand. Not that I'll remember it as I'm really not that interested. No doubt our Kath will describe your analogy as sexist though. :)
Now put me right here, please: this business of being intimidated by an ad - is that a girl thing?
I've seen the vandalism of ads on the tube and I consider that far more shocking and antisocial than the sexism/whatever that the ads supposedly contain.
The "this is sexist shit" labels seem to get stuck on a Harley Medical Group advert advertising anti-aging treatments featuring a headshot of a beautiful blonde woman "of a certain age" with some slight wrinkles around her eyes - i.e. pretty much exactly the sort of person who would go in for blepharoplasty (90.2% female in 2007). Seems to me it's a pretty accurate depiction of the sort of person who partakes in those services.
Sure, you can argue (as I'm sure the Progressives would) that everyone should be happy with their appearance, but the fact is that some people aren't. And they're mostly women. I know it gives Team Progressive the happy-haps to tell us how to think, but we have this strange notion of thinking for ourselves...
In this context I think "intimidated" equals "offence seeking successful" so it may be a socialist rather than girl thing ...
Jiks, thanks for shedding light on this for me.
I had been toying with the idea of asking a girl for her view but couldn't quite pluck up the courage.
stickers saying "THIS IS SEXIST SHIT" have been plastered over ads for plastic surgery in the London Underground for the past couple of years.
Stickers and graffiti were being placed on "sexist" adverts in the 1980s and, I would bet money, before. The remarkable success they had then on attitudes, is presumably why only acceptable billboards appear today. Or perhaps people who think like her have always been a minority.
Ah. That explains why there's no such thing as offside in Aussie Rules. It's so the Sheilas can understand it.
:-)
"...no one dare risk puting up any "explain the game" billboards because, obviously, that would be racist too."
Especially if it's about cricket! ;)
"Ads seem to universally portray men as morons..."
That's allowed, nay, encouraged. Don't ask why. It just IS.
"The actual offside rule explained for Kathryn Perera "
:D
"Now put me right here, please: this business of being intimidated by an ad - is that a girl thing?"
Nope, it's a Righteous thing.
"Seems to me it's a pretty accurate depiction of the sort of person who partakes in those services."
Indeed! I suspect that's part of the reason for their problem with them.
"Or perhaps people who think like her have always been a minority."
Oh, I do hope so...
"Ah. That explains why there's no such thing as offside in Aussie Rules. It's so the Sheilas can understand it."
Heh! Those 'Carlsberg XXXX' adverts must have sent the likes of poor Kathryn into a terminal depression...
I bet she really doesn't know the offside rule. She should spend more time thinking about kittens and baby rabbits, do some cooking and cleaning for her husband and stop worrying her pretty little head about all these difficult things that only men understand.
Make us a cup of luv, there's a good girl.
Julia- thanks for linking to a classic of the genre; Ms Perera writes in the best tradition of the old Guardian's womens page.
BTW given that GrauniadWorld is so incestuous, what are the odds on the author being a sister in law to that Graun journalist of long ago, Shyama Perera ? (Just a thought- the name is usually written 'Pereira').
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