A firm has been banned from advertising a food supplement for female horses called Slut Mix after it was branded "sexist and "highly offensive" by watchdogs. The product was being advertised on LeMieux Ltd's website as a supplement to help regulate female horse hormones.
The description states that the mixture "does attract a fair bit of attention, not least because of the name!". It goes on to clarify that "it's a serious product" which works if "...your mare is constantly in and out of season, aggressive and temperamental".
But a customer complained after seeing the advert in February 2022 because they felt it was sexist and "perpetuated negative stereotypes of women". Their grievances were passed on to the manufacturer who said the term was commonly used by trainers to describe a problem filly - a female horse which is too young to be called a mare.
They argued the product, which can be purchased for £42.50, was exclusively made for horses and said they had not intended to offend people. They also pointed out the product, which contains extracts of Chaste tree berry, had been on sale since 2000 and was available in 15 countries.
But the case was referred to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) who found the branding to be "highly offensive", even in the context of an advert for horse supplements. It described the terms as a well-known negative stereotype and that it was used to pass judgement on the behaviours of women who had or were perceived to have many sexual partners.
A spokesperson for the ASA said: "The ASA noted that the advertised product was a nutritional supplement for horses and that consumers would understand that the users of the products were horses." However, the term “slut” was a well-known negative stereotype of women and was commonly used to refer to women who had or were perceived to have many sexual partners, in a derogatory way that passed judgment on those behaviours.
"We considered that, even in the context of an ad for horse supplements, consumers were likely to consider the word “slut” to be highly offensive, derogatory towards women and sexist. For those reasons, we concluded that the ad, which included an offensive gender stereotype, was likely to cause serious offence."
The ad was found to break articles rules 4.1 and 4.9 of the Code of Non-broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing. This means the advert must not appear again in its current form, as was seen in February 2022.
They added: "We told LeMieux Ltd to ensure that their future ads did not contain anything that was likely to cause serious or widespread offence, including the use of offensive gender stereotypes."
