A Hampshire equestrian company has been given a whipping by the ad watchdog after ruling that a product listing for a food supplement for female horses called “Slut Mix” was offensive, even though it did not feature in an advertisement.
The listing for the supplement, sold by LeMieux Products, stated that it “…can reduce inflammation in the ovarian region and offer mares much relief and comfort during their seasons. Slut Mix does attract a fair bit of attention, not least because of the name!
“However, it’s a serious product that contains extracts of Chase [sic] Berry (agnus castus) in a palatable liquid nutritional base and really can work. If your mare is constantly in and out of season, aggressive and temperamental then this product has proved to be highly successful in easing the problem.”
The website featured a pack shot of the product with the name visible.
One complainant, who believed the listing, and especially the name of the product, was sexist and perpetuated negative stereotypes of women, challenged whether it was offensive.
In response to an Advertising Standards Authority inquiry, LeMieux said that it was a third-party stockist of the advertised product which was named by its manufacturer. The firm said it did not advertise the product beyond the listing on its website.
It reported that the manufacturer insisted that “slut” was a term commonly used by horse trainers to refer to a problem filly. It said the product was exclusively for horses and did not intend to cause offence to people. The product has been on sale since 2000 and was sold in 15 countries.
In its ruling, the ASA noted the product was a nutritional supplement for horses and that consumers would understand that the users of the products were horses.
However, the regulator insisted the term “slut” was a well-known negative stereotype of women and was commonly used to refer to women who had or were perceived to have many sexual partners, in a derogatory way that passed judgment on those behaviours.
The ruling concluded: “Even in the context of an ad for horse supplements, consumers were likely to consider the word slut to be highly offensive, derogatory towards women and sexist. For those reasons, the ad, which included an offensive gender stereotype, was likely to cause serious offence.”
Even though it was a product listing and not an ad, the ASA warned LeMieux to ensure future “ads” did not contain anything that was likely to cause serious or widespread offence, including the use of offensive gender stereotypes.
Quite where this leaves online listings of other potentially offensive brands – including beers Dizzy Blonde, Slack Alice, Leg-Spreader and Village Bike – is anyone’s guess.
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