‘Grumpy old cow is (a) gender specific term that reveals a prejudice towards older females’

An ad featuring a grumpy, gun-toting granny devised by a Geelong real estate agent and former Big Brother star has been cancelled after it was labelled ageist and misogynistic.

A Geelong real estate mogul and former Big Brother star has apologised after an ad for his agency featuring a grumpy gun-toting granny fell foul of the advertising watchdog and was labelled ageist and misogynistic.

Daniel Hayes, who appeared on Channel 7’s Big Brother VIP in 2021 and runs a You Tube channel called Million Dollar Bogan, said the controversial ad, which promoted his Hayeswinckle firm as “nice” property managers, had been discontinued after the investigation by Ad Standards found it had breached the Advertisers’ code of ethics.

The ad featured an image of an older woman wearing a nightdress and holding a shot gun with text that read: “Is your property manager a grumpy old cow? Relax, nice ones do exist … Hayeswinckle.”

The offending ad. Picture: Supplied

Daniel Hayes. Picture: Richard Dobson

Complaints to Ad Standards included concerns that “the older woman is depicted as ugly, sexless and one-eyed crazy,” “I found the metaphorical exchange with a bovine animal demeaning and disrespectful,” “Grumpy old cow is (a) gender specific term that reveals a prejudice towards older females participating and exercising power,” and “referring to women as ‘cows’, ‘hippos’, ‘pigs’ or ‘dogs’ is clearly dehumanising and loaded with misogynistic meaning.”

The ad was described as ageist and misogynistic and it was claimed in the complaints it discriminated against older women.

The Ad Standards investigation found the ad breached section 2 of the Australian Association of National Advertisers code of ethics as it did discriminate against a person on account of their age and gender and that it did portray violence which was not justifiable in the context of the service being advertised.

Hayeswinckle directors Daniel Hayes and Michelle Winckle. Picture: Supplied

Hayes, the managing director of Hayeswinckle, said “our intention was never to offend anybody.”

“In hindsight it was a mistake,” Hayes said.

“The ad won’t be run again.

“We read the report and we took what they said on board. We are sorry if we have offended anybody.”

Interestingly it may not be the first time the agency has been pull up for running an ad featuring an angry older woman with a gun.

In 2017 Hayeswinckle was found by the advertising watchdog to have breached rules about stereotyping older people and the portrayal of violence in ads by running what sounds like a very similar advertisement with the same “grumpy old cow” tag line.