Transport for London and VCCP have been hauled up over an execution of the “Act Like a Friend” campaign, after a cutdown version which ran on Facebook has been found to have “perpetuated the negative racial stereotype about black men as perpetrators of threatening behaviour”.
The spot was one of three that ran on the social media site, each a cutdown section of a two-minute film, and part of a wider campaign to encourage Londoners to intervene safely if they witness sexual harassment or hate crime on the public transport network.
It opened with a shot a black teenage boy on a bus, who was turned around in his seat. He said to the passenger behind him, “Am I not good enough for you or something? Why you not chatting to me?”
The next shot was of a white teenage boy sitting on the bus with text overlaid which stated, “Would you know how to defuse incidents of hate crime, sexual offences and harassment?”.
That text remained overlaid as the camera showed the left hand of a white teenage girl touching her right arm. The black teenage boy then said to her, “I said you look good and you don’t wanna go out with me?”
The camera moved to the teenage girl’s face. She appeared uncomfortable and looked out of the window. The text on the screen changed to “Watch the full film to learn how to act like a friend”. The black teenage boy said, “Can you hear me? Look at me when I’m talking to you”.
The ad’s caption stated, “To defuse incidents of hate crime, sexual offences and harassment, act like a friend. Watch the full film to learn how”. The ad included a “learn more” button with a link to a YouTube video.
But one viewer, who believed the ad perpetuated negative racial stereotypes about black teenage boys, complained to the Advertising Standards Authority, challenging whether the ad was irresponsible, harmful and offensive.
In its defence, TfL insisted the [overall] film featured a diverse cast, adding that the other two shortened ads showed a white man committing a hate crime against a black woman, and a white man committing a hate crime against another white man.
TfL also said the fuller story, in the two-minute film, showed two male youths perpetrating an incident of sexual harassment in which both characters “intimidated the victim and displayed offensive behaviour”.
While the main perpetrator who verbally harassed the young girl was a black youth, he was accompanied by a white male friend who sat close to the victim, “boxing her in”, said TfL.
TfL claimed that, according to its statistics, the probability of a typical target Facebook user seeing only one of the three ads was 10%, and there was only a 2% chance of a user only seeing the cut-down version that was the subject of the complaint.
However, the ASA said it was still possible to see the ad in isolation, and that it could still cause harm or offence, and assessed the ad as it would have appeared in a users’ feed on Facebook.
The ASA disagreed that the ad showed the white and the black male characters displaying intimidating and offensive behaviour, insisting that “the only aggressor in the ad was the black teenage boy”.
The ASA said that, when seen in isolation, the ad had the effect of “perpetuating a negative racial stereotype about black men as perpetrators of threatening behaviour”.
Concluding that the ad featured a harmful stereotype, was irresponsible and likely to cause serious offence, the watchdog banned it from running again, and warned TfL about future activity.
TfL and VCCP have yet to comment on the ruling.
Related stories
‘Act Like a Friend’ for hate crime victims, TfL blitz urges
‘Incestuous’ and ‘harmful’ mobile ad ripped down by ASA
ASA ruling exposes how easily kids can view explicit ads
Mobile gaming ads battered for portrayal of women
