Muller Light, Ryan Air and sexist double standards

Picture this scene from a car advert: The camera focuses on the chest of a beautiful young blonde woman in a bikini as she runs along a beach.

Over the top of the image, a husky male voice describes the power and sleek lines of the car being advertised; then suddenly, the blonde trips and falls comically out of shot.

The male voice over continues, saying that the new car he’s describing doesn’t just have good bodywork, it’s run by super-smart computer technology as well.

Sexist? I should think so.

The only thing is, that the advert I’m describing wasn’t for a car, didn’t show a young woman and wasn’t voiced by a man.

‘Objectifying and degrading’

It was for Muller Light yoghurt and had a woman’s voice huskily describing how delicious and “thick” the yoghurt is, over images of a man in swimming trunks falling over.

The advert is a perfect example of society’s double-standards when addressing sexism against men – not only in terms of what society considers sexist, but also in terms of rulings by the ASA, the advertising watchdog.

Malestrom reader Daniel Farr complained about the ad to the ASA and received the following response:

“We have previously received a number of complaints about this ad and we asked the ASA Council to assess it, specifically with regard to whether the ad was offensive because it was sexist, objectifying and degrading, and that calling the man ‘thick’ for falling over was unacceptable.

'Even a man can do it’

"Council also took into account complainants’ objections that the ad would be unlikely to be widely acceptable if the gender roles were reversed. However, on this occasion Council did not consider that there were grounds for further investigation.”

The ASA also refused to ban an infamous Oven Pride advert that showed a Neanderthal-looking man struggling to clean and oven, while his wife looks at him in contempt and a strap line reads: “So easy, even a man can do it.”

The ASA’s responses would be reasonable if it applied the same standards to complaints against adverts that objectify women. Except it appears that it doesn’t.

In 2012, Ryan Air ran an ad campaign showing images of scantily clad female air cabin crew.

Following 17 complaints and an online petition, the ASA promptly banned the advert with the statement: “We considered that the ads were likely to cause widespread offence, when displayed in a national newspaper.”

Sexist double standards? I should think so.

What do you think? Have you seen other examples of this double standard? Send them to dan@thecalmzone.net and tell us what you think in a comment.