Viewers’ beef with ‘sexist’ TV commercial
An ad for beef starring a female Olympian has been slammed as “misogynistic”, sparking an investigation by the TV advertising watchdog.
Fiona Byrne
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A TV advertisement featuring Australian Olympian Kelsey-Lee Barber battling with her ‘on-screen brother’ over a piece of beef has been slammed for being sexist, misogynistic, belittling and reinforcing unhelpful stereotypes.
The Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) commercial promotes beef under the campaign “Australian beef. Feed Your Greatness” and sees Barber, the 2019 javelin world champion, eating dinner with her on-screen family.
She and her brother clash over a last piece of beef with Kelsey saying she needs it as she “has a record to break”.
The brother responds, “well, I’ve got a record to break too” with a cut to footage of him competing on a dance machine at a games arcade.
Angry viewers complained to Ad Standards that the commercial was offensive with the advertising watchdog investigating the ad for a possible breach of the Australian Association of National Advertisers Code of Ethics on the grounds of discrimination on the basis of gender.
“It is sexist. A female Olympian being told that it is still not enough to matter beyond
her brother’s time zone skills. Advertising and glorifying a man’s inability to be told no
is sexist, misogynistic and out of date,” wrote one complainant.
“I found the ad sexist and belittling of girls’ role. It promoted myth of boys’ role as more
important than girls’,” wrote another.
“The young male aiming for a pretty trivial goal is held up to be more important by the mother. This is a pretty classic ‘50s scenario, but we are in 2021. This
advertisement makes me so angry, I could scream,” another complaint read.
The ad was also taken to task for presenting a family consisting of a mum, dad, brother and sister.
“I object to the depiction of the nuclear family being a family of four with one male and
one female child. I also object to the reinforcement of the patriarchal stereotype that
men are more deserving of extra food and that mothers in general will side with a
male child over a female child.”
MLA strongly defended the ad in a submission to the Ad Standards Community Panel, noting the commercial is part of an official partnership with the Australian Olympic Team and was approved by the Australian Olympic Committee.
“The context of the advert is that greatness means different things to different people —
from the heights of Olympic athletic achievement to more day to day achievements
which are nevertheless equally important to the person trying to achieve their
personal best in their own way,” MLA said in its submission.
“The advert conveys that beef has benefits for everyone, not just elite athletes — and it uses a humorous and obviously dramatised depiction of sibling rivalry to convey this message.
“The sister in the advert is a real life, well-known Australian Olympic world champion.
“She is shown in her Australian Olympic tracksuit with her multitude of trophies in the background to signal her world class sporting prowess.
“She is portrayed as strong, fit, and talented.
“Her achievements are lauded. There is no humiliation, ridicule, contempt or disparagement of the sister or of her achievements.
“There is nothing in the advert that is directed at gender, nor is there any suggestion that the sister should give the last piece of beef to her brother because he is a ‘boy’ and she is a
‘girl’.”
The Ad Standards Community Panel found the ad did not breach the AANA Code of Ethics and dismissed the complaints.