A woman’s arched back were to attract visitors to Malmö Nation’s 125th anniversary. Instead, the advertisement lead to a complaint being upheld with the Swedish Advertising Ombudsman.
At the beginning of September, Malmö Nation were building up steam for their 125th anniversary by presenting the music group Vigiland. To announce the group’s appearance, they published the cover photo of one of Vigiland’s hits, Shots & Squats, where the name of the song is placed over a woman’s arched back.
Strong Reactions
This made many people react, and after several tip-offs the Swedish Women’s Lobby filed a complaint to the Swedish Advertising Ombudsman.
“This is obviously a sexist ad, since a woman’s backside is used for advertising purposes”, said Johanna Dahlin at the time, the organisational secretary at Swedish Women’s Lobby.
“Sexist”
And now the verdict has been reached – complaint upheld. The Advertising Ombudsman’s jury (RON) were unanimous in their decision and have upheld the complaint from the Swedish Women’s Lobby. They call the ad discriminatory and sexist.
In their decision they write that according to practice, advertisements that portray women or men as purely sex objects and can be seen as violating are sex discrimination.
Curator regrets
Malmö Nation have responded to the complaint by calling the original publishing of the advert a rash decision, which the nation neither ”encourages or supports”. The nation’s curator William Personne was regretful when the complaint was made.
“I understand that the complaint was made, and it is good that these things are noticed. This will not happen again”, said William Personne at the time.
The ad was deleted by Malmö Nation just a couple of hours after it was published, but it was not enough. In their decision, the Advertising Ombudsman says that it was good that the ad was deleted, but that it doesn’t excuse the transgression.
One of 300
The decision is not followed by any legal action. The decision by the Advertising Ombudsman is the industry’s way to show society that responsibility is taken to stop advertising that crosses the line.
With the decision, Malmö Nation now belongs to a select few. Statistics from the Advertising Ombudsman’s homepage show that 275 ads have been condemned for sexism since the beginning of the organisation, 2009.
Translation: Lina Johansson
