Out in the Cold: Sexist Advertising and Working Mums

Work Wednesday

I've been tempted by this endless cold spell frosting the entire East Coast to write a post about the frigid working mom. Wait, no! What I mean is the freezing working mom. But a long rant about how it's too cold to get out of bed and get the kids bundled up and propel myself to work in the biting arctic air probably is pointless. And I wouldn't get much sympathy from our readers in colder climes.

But I'm still going to write about what's going on outdoors. Although not here. There. In England. Across the (frozen) pond. 

Last week, a U.K. trade association, the Outdoor Advertising Association, launched an ad campaign designed to promote the effectiveness of billboard advertising. It hired an agency, Beta, to design provocative ads for the sides of buses and city billboards, and a related public discussion website, BritianThinks.com. Their first choice of outdoor ad:

Career Women Make Bad Mothers.

The campaign, of course, did just what the OAA intended - it grabbed a lot of attention. (See, for example, this story in The Guardian or this one in The Sun.)

In fact, it sparked a huge outcry by women (not just working moms) all over the U.K., over a thousand comments on Mumsnet.com (the U.K.'s premier parenting site and an emerging political force), mommy war-mongering media coverage, threats of legal action by all sides (including one having to do with comments about the ad man's genitals), a snarky non-apology from Beta, a wicked response from Mumsnet, and, finally, a real apology from Beta.

But all this back-and-forth obscures the real problems with the campaign. And it's not simply that the statement is so obviously untrue. (It was, after all, not intended as the truth.) It's that -

Misogyny - what Beta tried to portray as "tongue-in-cheek" provocation and Mumsnet's founder criticized, mockingly, as "casual ironic sexism" - is alive and well.

A woman's need (or even choice) to combine work and motherhood is still seen as a valid topic of public debate in the U.K., where nearly 70% of women with dependent children work. (The U.S. has comparable stats and attitudes.)

It's acceptable to judge and denigrate - without any evidence - all working mothers' parenting.  (Especially, in what is perhaps a case of reverse classism, parenting by women with unnecessary "careers" as opposed to women with essential "jobs.")

And it's probably too obvious to point out that OAA/Beta would never have pulled off a similar ad about men. Can you imagine a poster plastered on buses and billboards with the line -  "Career men are bad fathers"?  No, you probably can't.

OAA/Beta ultimately pulled the ads. And now, Beta, in damage control mode, is proposing to run a new ad (if accepted by the OAA and its members):

Sexist Adverts Damage Us All.

Please, just let me hibernate for the rest of the winter - and the rest of the OAA/Beta campaign.

Comments

[Katherine]

Wow, this is really outrageous behavior by OAA/Beta. To take your analogy further, can you imagine an ad campaign that said: "All are bad parents"? That would never fly - so it shouldn't be allowed with regard to any broad demographic category.

On the plus side, after reading your post my blood is boiling, and that helps (a bit) combat the freezing weather.

[Susan at Working Moms Against Guilt]

Surely there were provocative statements they could've made that weren't prejudiced and assholish. Right? But I guess they went for lowest common denominator ...