The commercial doesn’t have much to do with chicken.

A young woman in a low-cut top purses her lips and pushes up her chest as she checks her reflection in a car window. The glass slowly rolls down, revealing two young boys who had been ogling her. In the driver’s seat, a disapproving mom glares.

The young woman sheepishly grins, then asks: “Did someone say KFC?”

Fifteen years ago, the ad might have been seen as just another crass marketing pitch leveraging sex to sell a product. But when the commercial recently appeared in Australia, the backlash on social media denouncing it as sexist was so vociferous, it prompted KFC to apologize.

The quick retreat, just before advertising’s marquee moment — the Super Bowl — underscored how the boundaries of what’s considered acceptable are changing quickly in the #MeToo era. Advertisers who for decades relied on the objectification of women to sell products are increasingly wary of taking that approach, aware that many consumers will no longer tolerate abject sexism.

“They would have never apologized 15 or 20 years ago,” said Abhik Roy, a former ad executive and professor of marketing at Quinnipiac University. “It’s more because of social media pressure.”