Win! Sexist ads to be stopped in Berlin!

The Berlin Government has become one of the latest to ban sexist advertising in public places.

Ben Knight from dw.com writes that Berlin's government wants to ban sexist ads across the city after three districts set out similar plans. Advertisers say the issue is irrelevant, but local politicians say misogynist advertising influences children.

German justice minister, Heiko Maas wants to prohibit sexist ads stating that: "sex shouldn’t sell”. According to a German News magazine "Spiegel" Maas’ idea was also prompted by the events that happened in the German town of Cologne on New Year's Eve where hundreds of women were robbed and sexually assaulted.

In an agreement signed in 2016, the Social Democrat-Left Party-Green Party coalition that governs the city pledged to cut out advertising that sexualizes women on billboards owned by the city.

Adverts showing women who are “weak, hysterical, dumb, insane, naive, or completely controlled by their emotions” would be ruled out under the Left Party proposal.

The party also wants to see an end to adverts where “a woman is barely dressed and smiling without reason, while a man is completely and comfortably clothed.” 

Once the ban is in place, "The coalition will establish an expert committee to examine and prevent discriminatory advertising," the parties said in their coalition agreement from last year. Already, advertisers are being prevented from placing discriminatory adverts on city-owned hoardings. A committee of experts will decide whether individual adverts are sexist or degrading in nature.

Collective Shout has long been pushing the Australian Government for an overhaul of our current futile Advertising Standards.

For years, the Advertising Standards Board (ASB) has turned a blind eye to sexism in advertising, because it’s not specifically mentioned in the advertisers’ Code of Ethics.

Please sign the petition here to call on the ASB and the AANA to revise the Code of Ethics and stop letting Australian advertisers get away with sexism and objectification.