"It's time to challenge and change how we portray gender in our advertising" - Unilever marketing officer 

Is this really happening? We hope so.

Unilever has a history of sexist and exploitative advertising and has let us down before. Here's some background.

Unilever is the parent company for many different brands including food and drink, personal care products and cleaning supplies.

Unilever's website states "We make some of the best known brands in the world, and those brands are used by 2 billion people every day."

Collective Shout has long called for a boycott of two of these brands - Lynx and Dove. Melinda Tankard Reist summarised the reason behind this on The Gruen Transfer.

Melinda Tankard Reist in the Sunday Herald Sun

It's time for a Love Your Mind campaign

[UPDATE] Spotlight new addition to list for Playboy bed linen

You're about to be bombarded. Bombarded with junk mail, TV, radio and outdoor advertising all competing for your Christmas dollar. Before you purchase gifts for your friends and loved ones, lets remember those brands that have excelled in sexploitation this year, the brands and companies that do not deserve your hard earned money. Cross 'em off your Xmas list!

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.

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.