It started years ago when the marketing team of Birell (A non-alcoholic beverage in Egypt) came up with the slogan “Man up and drink Birell” airing a series of sick advertisements showing how a “typical man” is the one who drinks Birell.
This campaign for example showed how a man who dances, or gets upset while watching football isn’t a man as a man should watch football and keep on shouting cause that is what a man does.
The problem is that their sales increased tremendously which shows that we have an actual problem with our “manhood” .. Who the hell would go and buy an awful drink after watching an advertisement that says “Be a man and drink this!”?
When I thought that it couldn’t get worse, it got way worse
Starting with an advertisement that shows a woman burping and then the voice says “Burping is for men only, man up and drink Birell”
Then finally, the worst of all; an advertisement that shows that the guy who stands up for himself is with a moustache and when someone starts bullying him he becomes with long hair (A woman) giving the message that a woman won’t stand up for herself.
Yes, I am with banning this kind of advertising, we can’t be standing for equality against a society that is refusing such a concept and find out that companies are using this to sell and help on establishing this fucked up concepts in people’s minds.
In Sweden, where I live, the “reklamombudsmannen” is the organisation responsible for complaints regarding advertisements and it has ruled so many times for banning advertisements as according to the Swedish law of Social Responsibility (Article 4)
Advertisements should not condone any form of discrimination, including that based upon race, national origin, religion, sex or age, nor should they in any way undermine human dignity.
Advertisements should not without justifiable reason play on fear.
Advertisements should not appear to condone or incite violence, nor to encourage unlawful or reprehensible behaviour.
Advertisements should not play on superstition.
Many advertisements got banned such as A bikini calendar for Ryan Air because the women featured in the calendar had “no relation” to the products being advertised and that “through their clothing and poses the women are being protrayed as pure sex objects”.
Another advertisement got banned for portraying men as mere sex objects as the advertisement featured a muscular man clad only in a pair of boxer shorts.
This packaging was refused as it showed that the little girl as a ballerina while the little boy as “tool-loving boy“.
Finally, the most famous advertisement that got banned was for the Swedish Democrats party as it was offensive to immigrants and specially Muslims.
Companies should market their products while keeping ethical and moral grounds as they should have social responsibility.
