Berlin, Schweinfurt (epd). In the first half of 2024, the German Advertising Council publicly reprimanded only two companies for sexist and degrading depictions of women. This continues a trend “that advertising at the expense of others is no longer socially acceptable and companies are acting much more sensitively,” said the Chairman of the Advertising Council, Thomas Hinderer, on Monday in Berlin when presenting the half-yearly balance sheet.
A company from Herlheim (district of Schweinfurt) was reprimanded for selling lawnmowers and, next to the advertised products, depicting a female model in a bikini or underwear with the slogan “We always cut sharply”. The complaint was that “the combination of motif and slogan” reduced women to their sexual charms and equated them with an object.
The same reprimand was given to a restaurant in Düsseldorf, which advertised a drink with the words “Sweet Ass, 3.50” on a display. The display showed a scantily clad woman from the side, with the focus on her largely bare bottom.
In the first half of the year, the Advertising Council received 299 complaints about a total of 182 cases (first half of 2023: 353 complaints about 203 cases). In total, there were 73 complaints about gender-discriminatory advertising, 22 percent fewer than in the same period in 2023 (93). This category has attracted the most criticism for years. In nine cases, it was possible to convince the companies to stop the advertising or to make significant changes.
