TfL ad that reinforced negative stereotypes about black men banned
An advert for Transport for London’s new ‘Pretend a Friend’ campaign has been banned because it reinforces negative stereotypes about black men.
The Facebook ad, which is part of a campaign to encourage people to intervene safely if they witness sexual harassment or hate crime on the TfL network, depicted a black man verbally abusing a young girl while a white male friend sat next to the victim and ‘pinned her down’.
One viewer complained that the ad was irresponsible, harmful and offensive in perpetuating negative racial stereotypes about young black men.
TfL told the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that both characters frightened the victim and displayed aggressive behaviour.
The ad was one of three commercials cut from the two-minute film ‘Pretend a Friend’ and prepared for social media.
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 the Facebook audience would be presented with any combination of campaign ads three times and estimated there was around a 2 per cent chance of someone seeing just the interruption complained about.
TfL said they use a bespoke casting 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.
He said: “We recognized that there was a negative racial stereotype based on the association between black males, including young people, and threatening behavior. We assessed whether the ad supported this stereotype.
“The ad showed a black teenager verbally abusing a white girl. While the white boyfriend was shown in the ad and the two-minute film, the ad did not show him jointly intimidating the victim. The only aggressor in the ad was the black teenage 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 lead to serious offense.”
The ASA ruled that the ad should not be shown again in the format complained of, adding: “We have told TfL to ensure future adverts are socially responsible. We have also told them to avoid perpetuating harmful stereotypes and causing serious offenses 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 variety of ethnicities, falls below our usual high standards when viewed on its own.
“Whilst very 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.”
