Fashion chain Giordano faced a public backlash last week over an ad that is deemed to be sexist. In its “Team Family Series” advertisement, posted on social media, the husband wore a T-shirt that read “Work” while the wife had a T-shirt emblazoned with the word “Cook”.
Ironically, days before the media first reported the Giordano ad controversy, the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle put a spotlight of what the future Duchess of Sussex did back in 1993. Long before she became American actress and UN Women ambassador, Markle, then 11 years old, wrote letters to protest a sexist dish soap commercial. Thanks to her, the company Procter & Gamble changed the voiceover in the ad from “Women are fighting greasy pots and pans” to “People all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans.”
Like Procter & Gamble, Giordano caved in to the protest. The clothing company has since removed the sexist ad, but the controversy highlights how pervasive the problem of sexism and gender stereotyping is in Hong Kong’s advertising industry. Take a walk around shopping streets and MTR stations, listen to radio or watch TV, and we are likely to encounter ads and commercials that depict women in domestic roles and other stereotyped professions such as secretaries and nurses. Men, on the other hand, are given roles of authority, like doctors and company bosses.
Sexist advertising is a global problem, but a number of countries and cities in Europe have taken an action against it. Norway and Denmark have laws that ban sexist ads. In early March, France’s broadcast watchdog and leading French advertisers signed a charter pledging to abolish “sexist or sexualised stereotypes” of men, women, girls and boys. On May 17, the Committee Advertising Practice, the UK’s industry watch dog, unveiled its proposed guidelines to end advertisements that perpetuate gender stereotypes, such as women being unable to park or men bumbling in the kitchen, as well as unrealistic body image and beauty expectations.
If enacted, the UK guidelines would expand the regulation that is in place in London. The city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, banned“body-shaming ads” from the city’s transport network in 2016, saying: “Nobody should feel pressurised, while they travel on the tube or bus, into unrealistic expectations surrounding their bodies.” Other cities like Berlin and Stockholm are seeking to follow in London’s footsteps.
While Hong Kong may not be ready for a legal approach to curbing sexist ads, we are inspired by the greater consumer awareness and initiative of the Hong Kong community to voice out their concerns over the Giordano ad and call for change. We hope this spirited, community-driven approach of calling out gender stereotypes continues and we are confident it will have a positive impact on the advertising industry to make ads more reflective of the diversity we have in our city.
For our part, TWF is committed to challenging gender stereotypes and we have a number of programmes that work on this issue, including our Girls Go Tech Programme, T.E.E.N. Programme and Media Literacy Programme as well as our documentary She Objects, which raises awareness about the harmful link between the media’s portrayal of women and girls’ self-esteem, violence against women and the erosion of female ambition.
We look forward to working together to make a sweeping change.
