Ever Faced the Walk of Shame? This is the actual title of a U.K. TV ad that has been ruled by the Advertising Standards Authority as not "sexist or demeaning to women."
The ad is for upscale U.K. department store chain Harvey Nichols. It features a bunch of women in skintight dresses and disheveled hair walking home in the wee hours of the morning following a night of casual sex. After we see these seemingly embarrassed girls stumble in their heels, trying to avoid eye contact with onlookers, we are given the image of a beautiful and elegantly dressed socialite who feels confident after having casual sex. It must be because of her Harvey Nichols outfit, right?
The 2011 Christmas ad received complaints for being sexist and offensive; however, the U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority has recently ruled that it is neither of these things and refuses to ban it from being broadcast.
In response to the controversy, The Guardian reports that representatives for Harvey Nichols explained:
The idea was to show that women did not have any reason to be ashamed, that society tended to be judgmental and that a woman's choice of outfit could playfully show that she could also have a "stride of pride".
Because the ad included a woman that "appeared neat and confident" instead of only showing women who were "disheveled and uncomfortable," the advertising watchdog concluded that:
We considered the ad did not, therefore, reinforce negative stereotypes of women generally, or women who chose to have casual sex in particular, nor that it was sexist or demeaning to women. We ... [also] considered the ad did not imply that lower-class women who had one-night stands should feel shame whilst more wealthy women should feel proud, or that it mocked less wealthy women who did not have 'model' figures.
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