Afraid Of Offence: Advertising Standards Authority Instructs The Warehouse To Remove Ad

The Advertising Standards Authority instructed The Warehouse to remove an ad that they claim buys into a stereotype that girls aren’t good at maths, which therefore breached advertising standards. Responding to such a subjective interpretation of the material only stands to hurt and hinder the ability and trust of regulatory bodies that enforce our advertising standards, says Nathan Seiuli, spokesperson for the Free Speech Union.

“If viewers are offended by The Warehouse’s ad, they are free to take their business elsewhere. No one is forcing them to view, engage with or interpret the material – if it is too much for them to handle, they could also try closing their eyes or ignoring it. But do we really need the Advertising Standards Authority ‘protecting’ us from this?

“The Authority claims the ad doesn’t meet the standard of social responsibility and breaches its requirement for ads not to contain anything ‘likely to cause harm, or serious or widespread offence’.

“The ad, which has now been removed from social media, contained shots of different bags, asking ‘what does your bag say about you?’. One of which was a child’s pink and purple backpack with a unicorn on it, with the slogan, ‘Can’t do long division’.

“There were two complaints made about the ad by the national retailer, with comments that it was ‘annoying’ and ‘offensive’, with one saying they ‘object to girls (or anyone) being aligned with an inability to do maths’.

“The Advertising Standards Authority plays a vital role in ensuring material meets basic standards. However, they have abused their delegated authority here. If left unchallenged, it sets a dangerous precedent for future cases where subjective terms like ‘harmful’ and ‘offensive’ are used as justifications for censorship. What’s next?”

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