An advert that was part of a campaign to recruit more women to the building trade has been banned for being sexist.
The Advertising Standards Authority said the ad, a poster for recruitment firm Rated People, was likely to cause harm and serious offence. The poster featured text stating, “Building Work. It’s a man’s game. Bit like football was”.
Alongside was an image of a hand holding a drill. Beneath that, smaller text stated, “If you’ve got the skills, we’ve got the jobs”. It was seen in September this year by 11 people who complained, saying it perpetuated harmful gender stereotypes by suggesting only men could work in the building industry.
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The company said that the specific ad highlighted that just as football had traditionally been seen as a man’s game, the trades profession continued to be seen in that way. They said the ad was part of a campaign designed to challenge the stereotype and change the mindset through their message of encouraging women into the trades by saying it was skills that were important, rather than gender.
They claimed the ad was 'tongue in cheek' and recognised the success of the England Women’s football team winning the Women's Euros this year. They said they alluded to the women's footballing success to illustrate that the same could also be true in the trades.
Last week, brewers BrewDog also had a 'tongue in cheek' ad banned that claimed their new fruit beers were one of your five a day. Rated People provided a number of articles to demonstrate stereotypical views held about the trades.
They also highlighted their ongoing campaigns and initiatives to champion diversity within the trades industry, challenge such stereotypes and encourage women to enter the trades profession. Rated People said that although perhaps the execution of the ad could have been better most people who saw it understood what it was trying to achieve.
Outdoor advertisers JCDecaux said they did not consider that either the wording or image was offensive and therefore did not believe that it had breached the Code. But advertising watchdog the Advertising Standards Authority upheld the complaints and banned the ad for being sexist, saying: "The Code stated that marketing communications must not include gender stereotypes that were likely to cause harm, or serious or widespread offence.
"It also stated that particular care must be taken to avoid causing offence on the grounds of gender. We recognised that the ad was part of a wider campaign made up of a number of ads, with the aim of improving diversity in the trades industry and challenging the associated stereotypical bias.
"However, because the ad was displayed in isolation, we assessed it on its merits alone. We understood that there was a negative long-established stereotype that building work was a male profession.
"We considered that consumers were likely to understand the phrase “Building work. It’s a man’s game” to mean that building work was a profession that was carried out by men, and was not appropriate for women.
"The phrase was immediately followed by text stating, “Bit like football was”, which we acknowledged was intended to imply that, in football, women had successfully challenged a similar stereotype, as exemplified by the success of the recent Women’s European Championship – and that the stereotype around building work was being challenged in a similar way.
"We acknowledged that some consumers were likely to interpret the ad that way.
"However, we considered that the claims in the ad were ambiguous, and that other consumers were likely to interpret the ad as presenting changing attitudes to football in a negative light, mourning the fact that football might no longer be considered a 'man’s game', and presenting building work as one area where women were still excluded, and should continue to be.
"We considered that the ad reinforced harmful gender stereotypes that both football and the trade industry should be for men only. For these reasons, we concluded that the ad included a gender stereotype that was likely to cause harm and serious offence, and breached the Code.
"The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Rated People Ltd to ensure they did not present gender stereotypes in a way that was likely to cause harm and serious offence."
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