Uh, good evening to you. We're not going
to show it because you've banned it, but
we can certainly show some stills as we
discuss it if people haven't seen it.
But if they had seen it, I don't think
they'd be surprised that you've banned
it, would they?
>> No, I don't think so. Um, we got
complaints from the public about this
this ad with the complainants
challenging whether it perpetuated
negative stereotypes about people with
darker skin and was therefore offensive.
Um, it was a before and after ad um with
black women's skin shown in the before
section to dramatize itchy, dry,
cracked, problematic, and uncomfortable
skin. Um, whereas the white woman's skin
shown in the after section was depicted
as smooth, clean, and relieved. Um, and
we thought that the contrast could be
interpreted as suggesting that white
skin was superior to black skin,
reinforcing a harmful and long-standing
racial stereotype.
>> And let me just fill in a bit more
detail because there certainly is a
cutaway of a black woman's face. You
don't see her eyes, but you do see her
grimacing in pain near the top of the
advert as she's apparently washing and
has sore skin. And then you see, as you
describe, a white woman at the end
luxuriating in washing smooth uh skin
that's not painful. It's pretty crass,
isn't it? When you were asked to look at
it, did you think it was obviously not
right?
>> No. Um we didn't actually. Um I mean,
mercifully,
um you know, clear-cut dodgy ads on the
grounds of race are very rare these
days. Um but we know from most of our
you know from our re research that we
carry out regularly that this is still a
worry for the UK public. Um in fact as
of last year when we did a big piece of
research 35% of the public were
concerned about adverse stereotyping of
race or ethnicity in advertising and our
rules are clear. You you know you you
got to avoid that. Um but these are
still I think judgment calls. Um, there
are few, thank goodness, there are few
slam dunks these days. Um, I don't think
the advertiser had intended to cause
infense. One of the the points they made
in defense of their ad actually was that
they um feature a lot of diversity in
terms of the models that they select and
feature in ads for Sanax and their and
their other products. So, I think I
think what this shows more is how
careful you've got to be if you're a a
company who's advertising. Um, you got
to really look carefully at the impact
that individual ads in your campaign
might have on the people that that see
them. You got to think about different
groups within that audience who um might
perceive things in different ways to um
to others. Um, and you got to be careful
about about relying on the defense that
because you're showing diversity
um in other ads in your campaign, that
will necessarily weigh on the decisions
that we make because, you know, we we've
got to factor in the fact that that a
lot of people will have only seen this
ad. They won't have seen the other ads
in the campaign,
>> which seems blindingly obvious to most
people. They might capture a snippet on
a TV show, TV station like ours. They
might see it on YouTube. They're not
going to see the whole campaign it in
its entirety and weigh up the balance
across multiple ads. I mean, that that
seems stupidly obvious to me, if not
most people.
>> Well, um, these are, you know, these are
points that I think matter to the the
the brands that are advertising, the
people that work for them.
>> Um, I don't think they're out, you know,
to cause offense.
>> So, you think this is more
This was just clumsiness more than
intended.
>> No, I think it was I I I absolutely
think this was clumsiness rather than
any intent to perpetuate a a negative
racial stereotype, but I I I think it
still does underline how careful you've
got to be. Um the you know, the rules
are there. They've been there for a long
time. It's important that they're there
because we know that this issue of um
you know negative stereotyping on
grounds of of race um matters to a lot
of people. Um we know that um we did a
piece of uh research back in 2022 into
racial and ethnic stereotyping and
advertising that found that 58% of
ethnic minority participants said they
felt ads featuring people from their
ethnic groups um influenced how society
saw them. Um, and it also found that
adverse portrayals of race and ethnicity
in ads had the potential to to reinforce
existing stereotypes. So, you know, this
stuff does matter. Um, it is important
that advertisers get it right
>> and we're glad you can talk to us about
it. Guy Parker, chief exec of the ASA.
Thank you very much indeed.