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LONDON — Hapless husbands and housework-burdened moms are being banished from British advertising, as a crackdown on gender stereotypes comes into force.
From Friday, advertisements must not include “gender stereotypes which are likely to cause harm or serious or widespread offense.”
Examples include depictions of men struggling to complete simple domestic tasks or ads that suggest women are solely responsible for cooking and cleaning.
Complaints will be assessed by the Advertising Standards Authority. British broadcasters are bound by the terms of their licenses to comply with its rulings.
The authority says its aim is not to ban all gender stereotypes but to remove those that are harmful.
Authority chief executive Guy Parker said “put simply, we found that some portrayals in ads can, over time, play a part in limiting people’s potential.”
Britain bans ‘harmful’ gender stereotypes in advertisements
Oh oh, now they're banning 'depictions of gender stereotypes' in Britain. Certainly not a step towards valuing free speech imo. I do roll my eyes occasionally when 3 TV adverts in a row depict a bumbling, clueless husband who has to ask his wife's help in changing the batteries in the remote control, or starting the lawnmower. But is it the job of government to regulate such fluff? Those ads which show men as bumbling idiots are geared towards appealing to women, and getting them to open their pocketbooks. If that's what women want to see, and motivates them to buy things, should government step in to stop it? Same for ads that rely on gender stereotypes of women.