Advertisment
The advertisers’ post on Facebook referred to the following:
“Stop training like your sister and do some real training. Training programs for men.
Miniature to Muscular”.
Complaint
Two complainants considered the advertising to be sexist and offensive.
Response
The advertisers did not consider that the advertisement was sexist. They said that had it been targeted at women, and said ‘stop training like a girl’ then it would have been sexist. They explained that people should engage in gender specific training programmes and that the advertisement was not saying there was anything wrong with women’s training modalities, but that they were not appropriate for men’s training regimes.
They also said that they trained a lot of women who compete at a very high level in power lifting, physique competition and a range of other activities; they felt this negated the accusations made by the complainants.
Conclusion
Complaints not upheld.
The Complaints Committee considered the detail of the complaints and the advertisers’ response. They noted that both men and women used the gym and the advertisers’ comments’ in relation to gender specific training. Whilst understanding why seeing one post in isolation could have led the complainants’ to their view, they did not consider that the advertisement was sexist nor that there was evidence that it had caused grave or widespread offence. The Committee did not therefore consider that it breached the provisions of sections 2.15, 2.16 and 2.17 of the Code.
Action Required:
No further action was required in this case.
