A Match.com video was sexist and offensive, the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has ruled.
The clip, posted on June 30, portrayed a day in the life of a couple, titled “Things that make him realise I’m a keeper” and showed a woman performing domestic chores for a man. The woman can be seen serving a protein drink to a man who is sat with his feet up, before arranging socks and towels in the bathroom and standing with a TV remote in her hand to put on the football for him.
Alongside the images, a voice-over states: “I will make him his protein drink after the gym. I always make sure he has a fresh towel and socks after his shower. I put the football on for him every evening. Find your keeper via Match. Go download the Match app today.”
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The ASA said it received a complaint from someone who believed the ad was sexist and perpetuated negative gender stereotypes. Match.com defended the video, saying they intended to demonstrate that small gestures between couples were integral to successful relationships, adding that they had contacted real couples to ask for examples of thoughtful gestures.
The company also said the ad was part of a series of three videos in which a man performed gestures for a woman and where both sexes did acts for each other. It also said that while the gestures carried out by the woman in ad could be seen by some to be overly gender typical, they were based on the behaviour of a real couple.
And, while the woman was shown to carry out the gestures in a domestic setting, Match.com did not believe that meant she did the larger portion of domestic chores, arguing that the content of the ad did not cause serious or widespread offence.
However, the ASA upheld the complaint and said: “We noted that all of the gestures performed by the woman were domestic chores; namely, making a drink and bringing it to her partner, preparing towels for after his shower, and setting up the television so that he could watch a football game.
“Whilst we acknowledged that the ad was unscripted and based on a real couple’s relationship, we considered that the gestures shown in the ad were nonetheless stereotypically associated with the female gender.
“Because the ad relied on the stereotype of a woman carrying out domestic chores in order to please her male partner, we considered that viewers would interpret the ad as reinforcing a negative gender stereotype.
“We further noted that the actions of the woman were one-sided and were not reciprocated by the man in the ad.
“Whilst we acknowledged that the ad formed part of a wider campaign and that another ad focused on the man’s gestures, we considered that was not evident when viewing the ad and, furthermore, it was not referenced in the ad that the man would reciprocate any of the gestures.
“Instead, we considered that the man was portrayed as passive whilst the woman performed the domestic chores around him; in particular, we noted that when the woman brought her partner a drink, he was sat down with his feet up on a footrest, which we considered created an impression of an unequal relationship between the couple.
"We also reviewed the voice-over in the ad and considered that it suggested that the gestures were habitual and were undertaken by the woman regularly. We considered that the longevity of the gestures implied that they were not one-off acts of kindness but were indistinguishable from chores.
“We also considered that the voice-over highlighted that the actions were done for the benefit of the man, not the woman. Given that, and in the absence of any reciprocal gestures by the man, we considered that the woman was shown to prioritise her partner’s needs over her own.
“We also took the ad title 'Things that make him realise I’m a keeper' into consideration. We understood that within that context, 'a keeper' meant someone with whom you could envisage having a long, successful relationship.
“We considered that the title, when viewed in the context of the ad, reinforced the idea that women should be subservient to men in order to maintain a successful relationship. For those reasons, we concluded that the ad perpetuated negative gender stereotypes and was likely to cause harm and widespread offence.”
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