[imagesource: YouTube / Windhoek Beer]

Imagine forking out for Gerard Butler to star in your beer commercial, which you know won’t have come cheap, only to have the advert banned after the Advertising Regulatory Bureau (ARB) said it reinforced gender stereotypes?

That ruling, handed down in January, said the ARB took issue with “the entrenchment of male behaviour that is bullying, and what has come to be labelled as ‘toxic masculinity’.”

Following an appeals process, reports Business Insider SA, the ARB’s advertising appeals committee has now ruled that the advert may once more be used:

It discovered that the ARB’s decision had “involved reading-in messages into the commercial that are not borne out by the presentation of the commercial and the facts relayed or portrayed in the commercial.”

…With no forbidden gender stereotypes discerned, the appeals committee set aside the original ban, which leaves the ad cleared to run on television again.

So, chances are that if you take a break from Netflix, you may be greeted with this in the ad break:

I often wonder what kind of person complains to the ARB about an advert like that.

Sure, toxic masculinity is alive and thriving, but I’m not sure banning that advert is going to do much to rein that in.

Whilst Heineken, which makes Windhoek, is now free to air the advert, it did get a decent telling off for the all-male cast:

In fighting off the ban, Heineken presented research showing a large majority of beer drinkers in South Africa are men.

Even if true, the committee said in its formal ruling, “the minority female drinkers of beer must not be treated as a silent minority in the design of marketing material by producers such as Heineken.”

Going forward, Heineken is expected to ensure commercials are more representative of South African society.

It’s never ideal to have your ad yanked off the air, but at least Heineken has avoided the nightmare was that Bruce Springsteen’s 2021 Super Bowl advert for Jeep.

[source:businsidersa]