An advertising campaign for a men’s shoe brand has been banned by Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for being sexist.
Goodwin Smith Shoes - trading under Redfoot Shoes Ltd - produced a campaign video that the ASA has stated is “both sexually suggestive and degrading to women, and therefore likely to cause serious offence”.
In its ruling the ASA considered that a number of scenes in ad, such as the opening shot of a topless blonde woman with the phrase “FANCY A PAIR?” shown on screen and the shot with a woman in her underwear on all fours with the product on her back, were sexually suggestive.
Goodwin Smith Shoes defended the advert by saying the campaign was an attempt to create a fantasy in which men are pictured as “confident”, this was “not meant to degrade women”.
The footwear company also explained that the ads had been formulated specifically for their target demographic: “men aged between 22 and 45 years of age with an interest in a clothing and luxury lifestyle”. And the ads were promoted on platforms (the brand’s email, Facebook, website and YouTube channel) where they would only be seen by consumers who had actively chosen to view the content.
However, the ASA has ruled the men’s shoe line coy disclaimer of “We did warn you” in an email subject line was not good enough.
One model featured in the campaign spoke out in its defence on social media.
Jasmine Jardot tweeted: “I didn’t feel degraded at all, I thoroughly enjoyed my time on set and am proud of being part of this campaign.”
In an attempt to try to make the men in the advert look powerful, charming and strong, women were assumed a position lower.
The ASA warned the company that they must “ensure that in the future their ads were socially responsible and that they did not objectify women”.