portrayals in ads. and really extensive consultation with the industry. the work that we did showed that actually there was potential for ads to contribute to real-world harms, you know, for example, we know ads affect people s behavior. and for example, they could affect how people feel they should act or behave or perhaps their career aspirations. so that was why we brought in this new rule to ensure that ads weren t contributing to those real-world harms. but apply it to the conveyor belt. the cream cheese commercial. and tell me, wherein lies the harm? if i m an advertiser, i would be struggling trying to understand what s permissible and what s impermissible. what s wrong with this ad? well, we received about 130 complaints about this ad, and members of the public were concerned that it was portraying men as essentially incapable of looking after their children. and the guidance that we
the u.k. s advertising standards authority said that the ads violated a rule new this year which bans the depiction of men and women engaged in gender stereotypical activities. the rule aims to stop, quote, limiting how people see themselves and how others see them and the life decisions they take. did the watchdog overreach? joining me to discuss is jessica tye, the investigations manager for the advertising standards authority in the u.k. jessica, thank you for being here. wherein lies the harm? well, we brought in a new rule two months ago that bans ads in the u.k. from featuring gender stereotypes that are likely to cause harm or serious or widespread offense. that new rule followed on the back of some really longstanding work that we ve done carrying out. so research, looking at academic research, speaking to the public about how they felt about gender
would an economic downturn cause president trump s base to abandon him? survey says. 7,559 votes cast, the noes, 61%, no, it would not. i don t agree with that. i don t agree with it for the following it depends who his opponent would be, for sure, but on the issue of would this be the exception to the fifth avenue rule, you know, the one thing that president trump would be held accountable for? i think he would be held accountable for it. i tell you why, the blame game wouldn t work. if the economy tumbles he couldn t lay it off on obama, he couldn t lay it off on hillary or page or the dossier or christopher steele or all the usual suspects. he could try and pass the buck to the federal reserve, but i just don t think so. i think it will all be about him. he s taken full credit for the economy, great, but if it should turn and by the way, i hope it doesn t i think he ll be
i think we know that there is a very longstanding stereotype that men are less capable of looking after their children. there is not the same stereotype for women. you know, we re not here to stop advertisers from being creative. we want them to be responsible. and that s what we think the message is from these rulings. if there were a commercial of a man on a john tractor doing yard is work, would that on its face be a problematic? if there were a commercial in the kitchen a woman cooking, you could say you re reinforcing stereotypes that the man does the yard work and the woman does the cooking. when this rule came into place, it was accompanied by clear guidance. that makes very clear that we are not setting out to stop any portrayal of gender stereotypes in ads. so we re explicitly not banning ads from showing women doing cleaning or men doing yard work, as you say. what it s about is particularly harmful portrayals.
produced which accompanied the rule said that it was it was unlikely to be acceptable for ads to suggest that men and women would fail at a task because of their gender. for example, not suggesting a man can t change a nappy. and our view was that this featured the daddy duface stereotype and suggests that men are less capable of looking after their children than women. that is harmful. that is harmful to men who are capable. looking after children and harmful to women because it suggests they need to be the primary caregivers. okay. to quote another great brit, robert plant from led zeppelin, does anyone remember laughter? well, you know, we re not here to stop advertisers from being creative. but at the end of the day if ads are contributing to harm, to society and to individuals, then humor isn t much of a defense in that situation. and you know, we think, you know, advertisers are very used