A 'highly offensive' advert for horse supplement has been banned due to backlash.
The supplement, called 'Slut Mix', is promoted as a product which is said to help a female horse, which is 'constantly in and out of season, aggressive and temperamental' and the company noted that the name of the product 'does attract a fair bit of attention'.
Although the item can still be purchased online, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled its branding as offensive.
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LeMieux Ltd, the company the ASA made the ruling on, said that were a third-party stockist of the advertised product which was named by its manufacturer.
The ASA said: "The complainant, who believed the ad, especially the name of the product, was sexist and perpetuated negative stereotypes of women, challenged whether it was offensive.
"The ASA noted that the advertised product was a nutritional supplement for horses and that consumers would understand that the users of the products were horses.
"However, the term 'slut' was a well-known negative stereotype of women and was commonly used to refer to women who had or were perceived to have many sexual partners, in a derogatory way that passed judgment on those behaviours.
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"We considered that, even in the context of an ad for horse supplements, consumers were likely to consider the word 'slut' to be highly offensive, derogatory towards women and sexist.
"For those reasons, we concluded that the ad, which included an offensive gender stereotype, was likely to cause serious offence."
They concluded: "The ad must not appear again in its current form.
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"We told LeMieux Ltd to ensure that their future ads did not contain anything that was likely to cause serious or widespread offence, including the use of offensive gender stereotypes."
Dr Jessica Taylor, a psychologist who specialises in sexual violence and victim-blaming, told The Independent the ad 'speaks to the developers’ attitudes and beliefs about women and their sexuality'.
She added: "The term slut is not used for animals or horses.
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"They weren’t thinking about horses.
"They were thinking about women. If I was working for that company, I would be thinking: ‘I know what you think of women’.
“Here we are trying to address global and national misogyny and then we have got horse supplements called ‘Slut Mix’ like it’s par for the course."
She went on to say: “Misogynistic slurs are one of the only forms of slurs which are normalised and accepted.
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"If you bring it up you are seen as a rabid feminist.”
UNILAD have contacted the manufacturer for comment.
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Topics: UK News
Anish Vij