Advertisement featuring “harmful gender stereotypes” which are likely to cause offence will be banned in Britain from Friday under new rules that could have a major impact on the industry.
The ban by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) would cover, for example, a woman failing to park a car, a man struggling to change a nappy or girls being less academic than boys.
The ban will not include some stereotypical scenarios that are judged not to cause as much offence in advertisement , such as a woman cleaning or a man doing do-it-yourself tasks.
“Harmful gender stereotypes in advertisement can contribute to inequality in society, with costs for all of us,” ASA chief executive Guy Parker said in a statement.
“Put simply, we found that some portrayals in advertisement can, over time, play a part in limiting people’s potential,” he said.
One of the advertisement identified as problematic by the ASA was a 2017 television advert for Aptamil baby milk formula, which showed a baby girl growing up to be a ballerina and baby boys becoming engineers and mountain climbers.
