A mom who hauled Autotrader to the Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) over an ‘offensive’ advert has won.
Consumer Hina Marais took her complaint to the directorate of the ARB, citing that an advert in question was quite derogatory and insulting to women and perpetuating stereotypes about women.
The commercial opens on a young woman, dressed up and, presumably, waiting to be collected by her date.
While she waits, she browses AutoTrader on her phone.
She swipes through pictures of luxury vehicles, saying, “Oof, he better drive this car”.
Then she looks up in surprise as a smiling young man pulls up, waving enthusiastically, in a bashed up yellow bakkie.
The date doesn’t go as planned as the couple have trouble with opening the car door and then the car not starting.
Eventually the women leaves and advises her date to get a car on AutoTrader.
In her complaint, Marais insisted that the advert perpetuated the stereotype of women being status driven, greedy, and using men to elevate their own status.
“It is further unfair to men insinuating that men need to achieve a certain income bracket / level of status to have relationships with women.”
She added that women have come a long way - independent, educated and successful enough to buy their own luxury vehicles.
“This advert has really disrespected women and is perpetuating stereotypes that both women and men are working long and hard to change.
“I don't appreciate my teen son watching an advert like this and subconsciously believing that his first priority to have any relationship with a woman, he has to impress her with a luxury car, nor do I want my son to believe that women use men for material gains and status and him subsequently disrespecting women because of such gender stereotypes being perpetuated.”
In its reply, AutoTrader denied that the advert aimed to promote gender bias stereotypes.
“The intention of the advert is to promote the AutoTrader service offering to the public, particularly in the form of its AutoTrader app.”
In its ruling, the directorate said it accepts that the commercial is humorously and cleverly executed.
“The question that it had to grapple with is whether this humour offsets the message that it is acceptable to reject a man because he drives a ‘bad’ car, and that men cannot expect to find love if they drive a ‘bad’ car.“
It further said in its ruling that humour alone cannot be a justification for the use of gender stereotypes.
“In fact, it is important to be especially careful in humorous scenarios because they so often rely on deeply entrenched stereotypes, and in turn entrench those stereotypes further.”
The Directorate was also concerned that the commercial condones “Blessee” thinking, which is a growing social trend in South Africa – where young women date strategically to find financial security, rather than love.
The advert was ruled offensive and since it was last aired on February 15, AutoTrader was instructed not to use the commercial in its current format again in future.
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