Australian Ad Pulled After Bureaucracy Claims It Vilifies Women

ashley.rae | February 23, 2016
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The Australian Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) has bullied a car service company into discontinuing its advertisement because the “sexist” portrayal of women allegedly results in the “vilification of women.”

ABC Australia reports Ultra Tune’s “Unexpected Situation” advertisement has been pulled after the ASB determined the ad violates a “code of ethics” pertaining to “discrimination against women.”

The 15-second advertisement in question features two women caught on train tracks and then panicking as a train approaches them.

In order to “avoid unexpected situations” like getting caught on train tracks, the ad suggests people should “get your car serviced at Ultra Tune.”

Although the advertisement ends with the empowered women walking away from the burning car (“Charlie’s Angels” style), the advertisement has still been condemned as “sexist” since the women are apparently portrayed as “bimbos.”

In their decision to pull the advertisement, the ASB said, “The board accepted that the intent of the advertisement [was] to show an unrealistic situation,” but that the women appear too dumb for the ad to be allowed. From the ASB statement:

… [T]he board considered that the women [were] depicted as unintelligent in the way in which they [sat] passively, with blank faces, in the car on the train tracks and also in the way they [appeared] to not notice the oncoming train.”

This behaviour, in the board's view, [made] the women appear unintelligent and [presented] them in a stereotypical helpless female situation.

In the board's view, the depiction of the women's reaction to their situation is a negative depiction of women and does amount to vilification of women.

Apparently, showing women triumphantly walking away from a burning car is part of the “vilification of women.” It is unclear how the ASB would respond if the advertisement featured two men looking “helpless” as opposed to two women.

Ultra Tune has stated they "vigorously dispute" the ASB’s findings and are seeking an independent review.

Watch the ad below:

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