One of Labour’s London mayoral candidates, Tessa Jowell, announced yesterday that she wants to ban sexist advertising on the Tube. Good luck with that.
In the wake of that Beach Body Ready advert, to name but the most obvious example, Jowell told the Evening Standard that, ‘Women ought to be able to travel in an environment which doesn’t constantly demean them or present an unrealistic image of women’s bodies.’
While it’s refreshing to hear a politician speak directly to the issue of women’s self-image, Jowell’s going to have a fight on her hands. Cosmetic surgery, diet supplements, make up, dating sites, even cars are all-too-often sold to us on a raft of politically dubious assumptions, images and taglines.
And, as Bic apologises for its wildly misguided ‘Look like a girl, Act like a lady, Think like a man, Work like a boss’ advert in South Africa and Kinder continues to divide its chocolate eggs into gendered pink and blue bullshit (with toys that reflect the supposed taste of girls and boys), the merry old dance of sexist advertising appears to be going along just as it always has.
Although wine company Premier Estates has thrown something a little unexpected into the mix with their new #TasteTheBush campaign. I’m sorry to tell you that this isn’t necessarily the lesbian wine whirlwind we’ve all been waiting for. According to the video on the website, #TasteTheBush is more about the taste of Australia in a very cheap Shiraz than cunnilingus.
‘Australia practically jumps out of the glass. In fact, some say you can almost taste the bush,’ says the woman in the advert, before oh-so-hilariously placing a vaguely muff-shaped glass of wine in front of her crotch. And then thinking better of it. Is it sexist? Is it funny? Does it make you want to have a glass of wine and then go down on your girlfriend?
We’ll just have to wait and see…
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That ‘Beach Body Ready’ Advert Gets The All-Clear From Watchdog
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.