ARE YOU beach-body ready? London commuters may remember this question from a controversial 2015 ad on the city’s underground featuring the now-infamous words alongside a bronzed, bikini-clad model. The campaign, which sparked cries of “body-shaming” from activists, led to a protest in Hyde Park in London and a change.org petition that attracted more than 70,000 signatures. Whether the advertiser, Protein World, benefited is unclear. But protesters eventually got their way. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), an industry regulator, launched a review of its guidelines on gender stereotyping. The subsequent ruling, that adverts “must not include gender stereotypes that are likely to cause harm, or serious or widespread offence”, comes into force today.

Some consumers will welcome the changes. Whether it be teenage girls fretting over their figures or fathers struggling with everyday household tasks, 48% of women and 44% of men think there are too many outdated stereotypes in television ads (see chart). Nearly half of women and almost a third of men resent the way their gender is portrayed. Many big brands have yet to adapt. Although heterosexual couples increasingly share domestic purchasing decisions, many firms still rely on binary marketing strategies, advertising some products to women and others to men. In traditionally female-dominated sectors, such as baby products and laundry detergents, women still comprise upwards of 98% of advertisers’ intended audience. In male-dominated ones, such as automobiles, women are largely ignored.

Under the ASA’s new rules, advertisements depicting “harmful gender stereotypes” will be banned. This includes ads featuring people being belittled for defying outdated norms, such as a man discussing his emotions. Those that associate someone’s gender with responsibility or failure, such as a woman tidying up while her family watch television, or a man failing to change a nappy, will also be banned. Whether the ASA will succeed in implementing its rather subjective rules remains to be seen. It is certainly true that such outdated adverts are woefully out of step with modern views on equality. But as the case of Protein World makes clear, consumers can usually figure this out for themselves.