TfL advert showing black man and his white friend harassing white girl on bus is banned after just one complaint… for ‘reinforcing negative racial stereotypes’ 

A Transport for London advert showing a black man and his white friend harassing a white girl on a bus has been banned for ‘reinforcing negative racial stereotypes’.

The Facebook ad was withdrawn following a complaint from a viewer who said the ad was irresponsible, harmful and offensive for how it depicted young black men.

The short clip shows a black man verbally abusing a young girl. She was accompanied by a white male friend who sat close to the victim and ‘pressured her’.

The advert was released as part of TfL’s new ‘Act as a Friend’ campaign, which encourages people to intervene safely if they witness sexual harassment or hate crime on the network.

TfL told the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that both characters frightened the victim and displayed aggressive behaviour.

The ad was one of three commercials made for social media that were cut from the two-minute film ‘Pretend a Friend’.

The other two outages involved a white man committing a hate crime against a black woman and a white man committing a hate crime against another white man.

TfL said a typical member of Facebook’s audience would be served any combination of campaign ads three times.

The ad was one of three commercials made for social media that were cut from the two-minute film ‘Pretend to Be a Friend’

TfL told the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that both characters frightened the victim and displayed aggressive behavior

The ASA ruled that the ad should not appear again in the form complained of

It is also estimated that the probability of a person only seeing the interruption that is the subject of the complaint is around 2 percent.

TfL said they use a bespoke diversity tracker to ensure they represent the people of London across all their campaigns.

The ASA said it was possible to view the advert on its own.

The ASA said: ‘We understand that there is a negative racial stereotype based on the association between black males, including young people, and threatening behaviour. We evaluated whether the ad reinforced this stereotype.

‘The ad showed a black teenager verbally abusing a white girl. While the ad and the two-minute film featured the white boyfriend, the ad did not show him jointly intimidating the victim.

‘The only attacker in the ad was the young black boy.

‘Whilst we understand that TfL aim to offer a range of diversity and scenarios throughout their campaigns, we felt that the advert, when seen in isolation, had the effect of perpetuating the negative racist stereotype of black men as perpetrators of threatening behaviour.

‘Based on this, we concluded that the ad contained a harmful stereotype, was irresponsible and was likely to cause serious distress.’

The ASA ruled that the advert should not appear again in the form complained of, adding: ‘We have told TfL to ensure future adverts are socially responsible. We also told them to avoid perpetuating harmful stereotypes and causing serious crime on the basis of race.’

A TfL spokesperson said: ‘Our aim is to ensure that our advertising reflects London’s diverse population and does not perpetuate any stereotypes, just as we ensure our services are as fair, accessible and inclusive as possible.

‘We regret that this social media ad, which is a shortened version of the full two-minute ad featuring a wide range of ethnicities, falls below our usual high standards when viewed on its own.

‘Whilst few people have seen this shortened advert on its own, we are committed to maintaining ASA standards across all our campaigns and are no longer using this shortened advert in our ongoing campaign to encourage people to support other passengers who are the targets of hate crime, sexual offenses and harassment on our transport network.’