So, there I was minding my own business when up popped an email flagging up next week’s International Men’s Day. To be honest, at first I thought it was a spoof; I mean are they having a laugh? Nearly every day is International Men’s Day already, other than International Women’s Day on March 8th and now they want their own date in the calendar too?
Anyway, luckily the old soak – that’s the esteemed editor of this august online empire to you lot – has no idea it even exists, even though it was inaugurated in 1999.
Apparently, Dr Jerome Teelucksingh, a history lecturer at the University of the West Indies, chose the date to honour his father’s birthday and promote positive male role models and it is now celebrated in over 80 countries worldwide.
Over a quarter of a century later, I wonder whether he has found any…
Anyway, apparently IMD has now landed on the radar of the advertising industry – and who says adland is out of touch? – so much so that even the ad watchdog has sent out a warning to brands to toe the line or else, insisting that ads must not include gender stereotypes that are likely to cause harm, or serious or widespread offence.
It quotes the example of one ad featuring a father, who was looking after his children in a house which was clean and tidy (an unlikely story), and was depicted as capable of being responsible when an item accidentally broke as well as being fun and playful (an even more unlikely story).
The watchdog reckoned that, although the ad made clear that fixing a household item would avoid the father and sons being “in trouble” with the mother, it didn’t perpetuate harmful gender stereotypes because it didn’t suggest that fathers were focused on having fun whilst mothers were concerned with tidiness (sounds about as likely as hell freezing over).
“[However] an ad for an estate agent, which featured a man’s torso and stated “WOW! WHAT A PACKAGE”, was likely to have the effect of objectifying the man by using his physical features to draw attention to an unrelated product.”
Well, I could certainly try to follow the rules but luckily the ASA doesn’t cover editorial, otherwise I would have been run out of town years ago!
Happy IMD!
