UK bans cream cheese ad because of ‘dopey dad’ stereotype
Posted August 13, 2019 4:05 pm.
LONDON — An advertisement for cream cheese showing distracted dads leaving babies on a conveyer belt has been banned in Britain under new rules against harmful gender stereotypes.
The Advertising Standards Authority says the ad for Philadelphia cream cheese “relied on the stereotype that men were unable to care for children as well as women and implied that the fathers had failed to look after the children properly because of their gender.”
Parent company Mondelez U.K. said it was “extremely disappointed” with the decision.
The watchdog also banned a Volkswagen ad that showed men doing adventurous things and a woman sitting on a bench beside a baby buggy.
Wednesday’s rulings are the first under rules barring “gender stereotypes which are likely to cause harm or serious or widespread offence.”
The Associated Press
