UK crackdown on advertising’s gender stereotypes highlights Australia’s low bar
Television adverts have the power to shape our perceptions and ingrain prejudices. That’s why a recent ruling by Britain’s regulatory body is welcome, argues Deakin University’s Michelle Smith in this cross-posting from The Conversation.
From next year, TV advertisements that play on gender stereotypes, or that mock people who fail to conform to them, will not be permitted by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority.
The kinds of ads that have been flagged as inappropriate include those that depict men as incompetent at doing basic household or parenting chores, or that show a whole family leaving a giant mess for mum to clean up.
Australia has largely moved beyond acceptance of extremely objectifying ads for products with no inherent connection with sex. Supplied: CC BY-NC-SA
Fair enough, if it’s blatantly sexist etc. That kind of stuff is self-regulated these days.
But there are going to be so many grey areas in this, and how people perceive ideas and concepts. Especially with the making someone ‘look stupid’.
If marketers weren’t conservative, box ticking, frightened morons enough – these new rules are going to make it even harder to get a funny ad out…
What absolute nonsense. If a campaign crosses a cultural line where the majority are offended, it will fail. Market forces are the most effective form of conditioning. If a campaign crosses a line where a loud-mouthed minority are offended, who cares? The fact the writer would blurt out rubbish word-salads like “heteronormative orientation” says it all. The UK has moved into a dangerously totalitarian state, where ideology is enforced, dissent is crushed, and their new ad edicts are part of that. Last year, a comedian at the Edinburgh Fringe was arrested and taken to a prison cell for telling a joke. If you think that kind of culture is normal, then go there, now, and live in oppressive wretchedness. Those bullying intolerant attitudes are not acceptable in Australia.
Two words Mike … Wicked Campers.
Wow. Not sure the Soviets were even this dictatorial and censoring of free speech…