Advertising Standards Board upholds complaints against 'Have an Affair' billboard

The Advertising standards board has upheld complaints against Ashley Madison 'Have an Affair' billboard. Ashley Madison is an online 'dating' service for 'cheaters.' The billboard has now been pulled down.

Learn Italian, play skirmish, do gymnastics, get some porn

Following on from Ryl Harrison's article challenging Makita's sexist advertising which featured some great examples of letter writing, we thought you might like to read this letter which Rose has sent to her local newspaper.

Local newspapers increasingly have this odd mix of family and community stories alongside invitations to visit the local brothel or sex shop. Rose decided it was worth speaking up about. On'ya Rose! We look forward to hearing their response.

Today a special guest post by Collective Shout member Ryl Harrison.

Ryl's experience and persistence with challenging Makita power tools on sexist advertising in their catalogues has shown results. Makita now appears to be stepping  away from using sexist imagery in their advertising, although they’re not quite there yet. Read on to see how Ryl went about challenging Makita and what you can do to help. We agree with Ryl, it’s worth speaking up.

Recently, one of our members wrote on our community page about the Ashley Madison billboard at Sydney Airport.

Many others have emailed us about the same billboard. It features a naked woman, complete with ‘sultry’ facial expression and reads

“Life is short. Have an affair.”

As published on Melinda Tankard Reist's blog.

Good piece in The National Times today on ‘Lad’s Ads’, pointing out the raw sexism of the new Brut deodorant advertising campaign – a perfect case study in sexist advertising. Brut appears to be following in the footsteps of Unilever’s Lynx, which has turned objectification into an art form (all the while promoting Dove ‘real beauty’). Thanks Brut and Lynx for entrenching the notion that women are mindless objects for male sexual fantasies. Oh, and men? Perhaps find something else to spray yourselves with. These ads demean you too.

Via Melinda Tankard Reist

The Revolution of Real Women has criticised the UK’s advertising watchdog for banning the Diesel ‘Be Stupid’ ads – for the wrong reasons.

Melinda Tankard Reist appeared on web program the Gruen sessions. Melinda did a great job of challenging the sexist and objectifying portrayal of women in advertising. You can watch the video at the following link. It goes for about half an hour and is worth taking the time to watch.

Visit the link and select "portrayal of women in advertising" from the menu. Video no longer available.

The Gruen Sessions - portrayal of women in advertising.

"The comments on this transport advertisement read "If you woke up with $100 in your pocket and a sore arse, would you tell anyone?"