More sex and politicians in Sweden! The land of midnight fun never stops giving in the department of ridiculous sexist scandals in a b-cup.
Just the other day, the company called Panlegis, which sells the shady practice of establishing LTD's in the UK cheaper than it is to establish a limited company in Sweden, was reported to RO (Reklamombudsmannen) för sexist advertising as their holiday ad included a topless santa in a tub with the pun-bastard line "Company for christmas?". Sadly, it's not the terrible pun that's a bannable offense, it's the half-naked santa-girl sitting in a tub, which has nothing to do with the service they are selling. There are so many things wrong with this ad, the pun, the layout, the colors, the image - and who on earth wears hose and heels, but nothing else, in a tub?
Panlegis responded today by reporting Hillevi Larsson right back to RO, says politikerbloggen, and it was because of this image (in full) which is her portrait available on socialdemokraternas site. Yes, there's actual skin showing in that shot, an entire neck and a hint of cleavage. The dress is also quite snug. And she's wearing heels! Call the cops! This woman must be stopped, clearly.
Lets just take a moment to laugh at that for a second. Go ahead. I'll wait. Oh, you're done already?
Yes, it wasn't that funny. By doing their counter-report, accusing Hillevi Larsson using sex to sell, just because she happened to be a real live woman in a dress at the time of her PR portrait, Panlegis bought themselves another mile of sex-in-advertising-debate press (a.k.a cheap PR for companies that have nothing good to say about themselves), whilst showing off their non-skills in actual company guidelines. See, in Sweden the MFL (Marknadsföringslagen) states that all advertising should follow "god marknadsföringssed", that's good marketing guidelines and what they are referring to is the ICC's code of advertising and marketing communication practice, for ethical guidelines, which states; advertisers and marketers should be especially sensitive regarding the possibility that a particular message might be perceived as pornographic, violent, racist or sexist. Like in the way a half naked santa in a bathtub, only appearing in the ad to allow such a horrible pun to exist, can be perceived as sexist.
But what do they know, they're only the International Chamber of Commerce, and it's not like any business begun on a dime at Panlegis would ever grow know what that is. So, in a way, I guess this is advertising that speaks on the same level of their intended audience. It's far more worrying that Panlegis are exposing their non-knowledge whilst selling "legal ways of establishing companies abroad to avoid the Swedish fees". I hope Panlegis read up on the details of how to do that, at least.
This being Sweden, the PR-coup is of course working out really well, never have so many mentions of panlegis appeared all over the blogosphere, and all the people who are currently busy cheering the company on in the comments of various blogposts are adding fuel to the flames, without ever learning the difference between objectifying a woman and portraying a woman.
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To give y'all an idea of what's being said about this in the Swedish blogosphere (that's right, I used that word), which all seem to agree that Hillevi should have been wearing a burqa before opening her mouth - here are a few translated excerpts:
Widar Nord - "This weeks LOL" google translate
Kontaktmannen google translate
Skapandets moral "hypocritical politicians!" Google translate
Choice comments from Dagens Media Google translate
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PermalinkI don't see what the fuss is about. I think it is tame, cheeky maybe. The PETA finger painting via PhotoShop is where the "finger" of decency rants should be directed.
Oh darn, I got milk on my cereal and keyboard. Really I send pic.. no pun intended.
Disclaimer: After 4-6 hours of video editing my judgment may be impaired. Twitter with breakfast!
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PermalinkThe original ad breaks the law. Hence it was reported. The the debate went south as soon as the reporting party turned out to be a fairly attractive woman who wears dresses. I'm sure the discourse would have been equally bad had the reporting party been an ugly older woman wearing comfortable mommy-jeans.
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PermalinkThe PETA Ads would never run in Sweden. So, you'll have to view this from the Swedish perspective, since we don't have either PETA or their ads (aren't we lucky? hehe) In the UK, tech-companies do ads like this all the time, but they can't do it in Sweden.
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PermalinkThe PETA reference was a brain memory leak. Patched rule to state, "Least said the better for all and log exceptions."
I still agree with your last two paragraphs but fail to connect on sexist, misleading is stronger reason to whack the ad with a penally. Vague -"sexist" : Moral trap rule for "paybacks are [a female hound]" by watchdog. The reason I think that is; interpretation allows free pass if suspect is connected. An Example: The good old FCC straw poll, "Q: anyone complain? ", Answer back: No , Pass it. Later: One (1) complaint from connected person/group/company A headline is born, no reference to why the other 100 complaints [if there where 100] where shelved. This example may have technical errors but that is my take on using variables. Too easy to throw the cousin(sexist) of (telecomm(decency_rule) at bee nest and wait. Argh, maybe I see too much cable TV and cannot be [word for release (someone) from apparent brainwashing.] deprogramed]
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PermalinkThe ad uses a barely clad woman as decoration and setup for pun that might even confuse people; company for christmas, meaning both "would you like to set up an LTD" and could be interpreted to mean "Would you like to order a half-nude santa helper for your tub?". The nudity isn't the sexism part, the powerplay is, where women are portrayed as objects for sale.
That you can view it as anything else isn't uncommon, just sad.
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PermalinkUpdate on this. Hillevi Larsson has responded to the storm of comments at Politikerbloggen - google translate
On her reasons for reporting this ad:
On the response, when Panlegis reported her, for her portrait:
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PermalinkImportant thing that goes around advertising should be for relevance and not only by letting people view that interesting image because of its second meanings and other bragged dilemmas to editing, fashion, titles and the likes. A product should be advertised productively and not to only add up an explosive topic to the audience and remember, not all viewers are adults.
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PermalinkFor anyone wanting to practice their skills at identifying logical fallacies, Panlegis and Hillevi Larsson provide some examples.
The Swedish blog quotes do as well.
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/index.html#index
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PermalinkFor anyone wanting to practice their skills at identifying logical fallacies, Panlegis and Hillevi Larsson provide some examples.
The Swedish blog quotes do as well.
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/index.html#index
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