The ASA has issued two recent decisions which emphasises its continued focus on social responsibility, harmful stereotypes and offensive content. It found that the advertisers had crossed the line by reinforcing harmful racial and gender stereotypes, respectively.
Workplace confidence claims collide with racial stereotyping
In a five-minute YouTube advertisement for a self-improvement app, a South Asian woman was shown experiencing dismissive and discriminatory treatment in the workplace before improving her confidence and communication skills through the advertised "articulation training".
The advertiser argued that the ad was intended to address confidence and self-advocacy rather than ethnicity and that discriminatory behaviour by colleagues was portrayed negatively. However, the ASA concluded that the overall message of the ad was that South Asian women were poor communicators, lacked confidence, were deferential and needed to change the way they spoke to succeed professionally. The regulator also considered that the ad drew on stereotypes associating South Asian workers with outsourced workplaces and a poor understanding of English.
The ASA found that the ad perpetuated harmful racial stereotypes, was socially irresponsible and likely to cause serious offence, in breach of CAP Code rules 1.3 and 4.1.
Objectification and violence presented as gameplay
The second ruling concerned an in-game advertisement for a mobile strategy game. The ad featured a sexualised female character whose tights were removed while she slept and who was subsequently struck with a fly swatter as part of the gameplay mechanic.
The ASA considered that the character's clothing, pose and camera angles objectified and sexualised her, while the non-consensual removal of her clothing reinforced a harmful stereotype that women could be treated as passive objects. The ASA also objected to the presentation of physical aggression towards the sleeping character as a game element, finding that it trivialised and condoned violence.
The ad was held to be socially irresponsible, to condone violence and to contain harmful gender stereotypes likely to cause serious offence, breaching CAP Code rules 1.3, 4.1, 4.4 and 4.9.
Why is this relevant?
The rulings illustrate the ASA's willingness to look beyond advertisers' intentions and assess the overall impression created by an ad. Even where discriminatory conduct is depicted negatively, or where offensive content is presented as part of a fictional narrative or game environment, the ASA will intervene if it considers that harmful stereotypes are reinforced or objectionable behaviour is normalised.
