Ads in France and Europe under attack from EU
September 18, 2008 // 0 CommentsEU criticizes gender stereotypes, violence against women and anorexic models in advertising.
Political correctness, outcry against glorifying violent acts against women and the perennial hand-wringing over the unhealthy body image presented to young women by overly thin models in ads formed a convoluted basis for an unprecedented resolution in a recent EU meeting.
The European Parliament voted 504 to 110 to adopt a nonbinding report on gender stereotypes in advertising. The move might pave the way for legally binding legislation in the future, said Mary Honeyball, a British lawmaker and a member of the Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee, which developed the report. Honeyball hoped the vote might encourage the advertising industry in member states of Europe to make some changes. “The report was passed by a big majority and so there’s obviously recognition that there is a need to look at this. There is unacceptable stereotyping,” she said.
The report states that advertising’s gender stereotypes can “straitjacket women, men, girls and boys by restricting individuals to predetermined and artificial roles that are often degrading, humiliating and dumbed down for both sexes.”
Images in advertising in France and the rest of Europe came under scrutiny, with even such time-honored brand icons as Mr. Clean (Monsieur Propre in France) unable to escape suspicion. The famously brawny, bald male figure was maligned as a gender stereotype — after all, didn’t that image suggest that only a big, strong man could have the power to tackle tough household dirt?
Some in France and elsewhere may have found it hard to believe that th EU would present such arguments, politically correct to the point of ridicule, with a straight face. Unfortunately, the unintentional frivolity of ideas such as these took away from some of the more serious concerns about advertising images in European campaigns covered by the report, such as those depicting violence against women. Particular notice surrounding this issue has recently centered on a Dolce & Gabanna magazine ad. The 2-page spread for the Italian luxury fashion brand portrayed a woman in high heels lying prone and pinned down by a shirtless, muscular man as other standing men watch. The ad, which ran in 2007 and was defended as an artistic choice by the fashion house, was eventually pulled in both Spain and Italy for its provocative gang-rape fantasy depiction. “Because of the passive and helpless position of the woman relative to the men around her, (the image evokes) the representation of abuse or the idea of violence towards her,” said the Italian watchdog body that demanded the ad be banned in Italy.
Also affecting women, the issue of anorexia in young girls exacerbated by overly thin models in advertising and other images has already been under discussion in France and elsewhere in Europe for a while. In France, lawmakers in the Senate are discussing a proposal to impose fines of up to €45,000 ($64,000) for ads that promote or incite anorexia by the depiction of very thin women. The bill has already passed in the National Assembly in France. The European Parliament echoed the cry during its debate, calling on advertisers “to consider carefully their use of extremely thin women to advertise products.”
For now, the EU report is not binding, but it is hoped that advertisers will be encouraged to re-examine gender stereotypes, violent images and images of unhealthily thin body types in their communications. However, if some in the EU have their way, some form of the report could one day become law, which could lead to an unprecedented oversight and censorship in the advertising industry in Europe. Few in France or the EU, including those in the ad industry, contest the that images glorifying violence against women should perhaps be curtailed. But they separate that from the issue of gender sterotyping. Sterotypes of many kinds have long been an advertising creative staple, as they so easily communicate a thought to many people and are often used humorously. Forbidding advertisers to show a woman serving coffee or a man in a suit boarding a plane (as two of the ads under attack did) seems draconian to many.
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