UK regulator set to ban ads depicting bumbling manchildren

As the late, great Bill Hicks said

"By the way, if anyone here is in marketing or advertising...kill yourself. Thank you."

Good news

If the ASA wants to vet each advert for compliance with New Soviet Man^TM then it clearly has too much time on it's hands. Lets get rid of 10% of them and see if they still think this is a good idea.

Or, in other words, the public can inform advertisers of the unsuitability of their adverts simply by not buying the product.

What does this mean for the Andrex Puppy?

Do they have to use a Tasmanian Devil instead?

It's a pointless step

The ASA has no teeth. It goes round investigating complaints

For example, in this week's rulings, the advert "A Video on Demand (VOD) ad for Femfresh bikini line shaving products, seen on ITV Player and 4oD in March and April 2017, featured several women, who were wearing briefs and swimwear, dancing. It included multiple close-up shots of the women’s crotches.". It clearly breached ASA rules, so what did the ASA do? Did they:

1. Report the incident to the CPS for prosecution?

2. Prosecute them directly?

3. Fine them?

Nope. The full action from their web site reads "The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Church & Dwight Ltd not to use advertising that objectified women and which was likely to cause serious or widespread offence to promote their products."

In other words, they wrote them a letter. By this time, the company has probably already moved on and are using a new advert. So a pointless gesture.

Many companies don't even reply to the ASA. After all, what's the point?

If England is serious about these adverts, it needs to allow the ASA to take action against these companies, not just write a letter.

Society shouldn't move forward. Period. (well actually it should)

FFS, we all (apart from the misogynists) know that less stereotyping probably leads to a more successful outcome for society overall. Sometimes that movement needs a nudge in the right direction, which is what this is.

Stop being so fracking alarmist about control. Advertisers know they shouldn't be using cheap stereotypes to sell stuff. So they drag their heels, because it is easy. France recently had a similar thing about underweight models used in advertising. It is just wrong, so they legislated.

Once equal treatment becomes the norm, we can scrap these laws as antiquated. But for now, we need them.

Well goodbye...

...ganja toting Afro Caribbean milking a giraffe for sweets.

yes, I know not all Afro Caribbeans are like that.

Some milk penguins, instead.

Is this catch 22?

Let me get this straight.

sexuality and roles are not determined by innate biology, but by cultural stereotyping.

so in order not to warp citizens minds, we must not reinforce cultural norms.

then citizens will become totally unsure of what cultural norms, and their roles should be.

And we wont be able to show that on TV either, because the cultural norm of a gender confused neurotic will be considered a stereotype.

Oh dear. you can only determine if racial discrimination is happening by an act of racial discrimination.

you can only fix racial discrimination by an act of racial discrimination.

What it amounts to is that government itself becomes a vehicle for self justifying bigotry.

That's the yogurt industry bolloxed then...if the ads are to be believed women hold regular yogurt parties whilst men are unable to recognise it as food, despite looking at a fridge-full of the stuff.

Don the Fart

If this legislation is passed will it mean the end of clips about little handed Donnie and put an end to his future prospects of stardom?

I have an idea that is fairer, simpler to enforce, and will be welcomed by a much wider spectrum of society: Ban ALL advertising.

Meh

Well as a widower dad of one small child can I say that it's very obvious that the entire advertising and social set up is circled around kids+mum.

And that neither my boy or myself really give a shit about it. Life's too short to get worked up about crap like that.

Long ago and far away...

In the 1980's, I read about a study here in the states. The researchers analyzed 399 television commercials where either the woman or the man was humorously portrayed as clueless, stupid, incompetent, we're lazy. In all 399, the butt of the joke was the guy.

this shouldn't be encouraged, it's another 1st world problem

We don't or at least shouldn't need 'protecting' from stereotypes, bad role models or anything we might see on the TV, on a billboard or on a computer. We seem to be encouraging a world where people are increasingly fragile and can't think for themselves, we need to tiptoe over endless eggshells to avoid offending them.

Obese people are told to be 'body confident' rather than to lose weight, they cost the NHS £5billion every year, there are so many of these body confident people about no-one notices any more, yet if you see someone who is anorexic then it's rare, people look and stare, this is despite the thin/athletic models in the magazines, on the TV, in adverts etc, or the slim manakins in the shop windows. They then use 'real women' in the adverts to avoid offence meaning that to be one you have to be overweight, if you are slim/athletic then you're presumably part of the problem! If you're a man that's useless around the house or can't change a wheel on a car then you're a stereotype, if you know how to fix stuff and don't have a problem with DIY and keeping the house clean then you're just another man that's keeping women down. If you're a woman who likes being a housewife then you're oppressed! Any model used will always offend someone, it's what they're there for, it gives them validation. It's a competition to see who can be the most frequently offended and self-righteous.

People don't need protecting, children should be taught how to think, not what to think. You should be confident in your own self and mind, your problems are your problems, they're not everyone else's, you're just as special as everyone else, i.e you're not special. No-one is interested in what you identify with if that's all you've got to contribute to the world. Go out and do something, be the best you can. If you find that the way a product is advertised offensive, awesome, don't buy their product, don't complain about it and demand that it's banned. We're bending over backwards for this tiny but very vocal minority of people who contribute nothing but demand everything. It's long past time we just ignored them and got on with our lives as all of these harmful adverts or stereotypes don't bother us, we're don't even notice them as we're just getting on with it. If you object to how something is advertised then just don't buy it. Marketers create adverts they think will help sell a product, if it doesn't work they'll try a different approach.

What we need is more government regulation of acceptable speech...

bleated the sheep in unison.