Sunday, September 07, 2008

Euro Notes: Some EU-rocrats Want to Ban Sexy Advertisements?

*Sigh.*

The humorless bureaucrats march on in their endless PC crusade. Look at this rather unsettling passage:

MEPs want TV regulators in the EU to set guidelines which would see the end of anything deemed to portray women as sex objects or reinforce gender stereotypes.

This could potentially mean an end to attractive women advertising perfume, housewives in the kitchen or men doing DIY.

Such classic adverts as the Diet Coke commercial featuring the bare-chested builder, or Wonderbra's "Hello Boys" featuring model Eva Herzigova would have been banned.

The new rules come in a report by the EU's women's rights committee. Swedish MEP Eva-Britt Svensson urged Britain and other members to use existing equality, sexism and discrimination laws to control advertising.

She wants regulatory bodies set up to monitor ads and introduce a "zero-tolerance" policy against "sexist insults or degrading images".


Oh, sure, this is how it starts. Where will it end? Ugh. "Control"? "Monitor"? "Regulatory bodies"? Ugh again. The whole idea smells of Canada's now-disgraceful human rights tribunals and their attempt to shut various people up.

OK, to be fair, though: the ad ban is a proposal by some MEPs, not the entire Brussels superstructure -- or, at least, not yet, anyway.

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