Company’s sexist ads offensive and illegal

“IT IS JUICY. Do you want it?” says the text of an advertisement displaying the image of a young woman in bed, her feet chained. The advertisement of Hunan Juewei, a domestic fast food chain company, has provoked a storm of criticism. And it is not the first advertisement by the company to offend people. China Women’s News comments:

As soon as the advertisement was released on the company’s official micro blog it received hundreds of complaints, forcing it to withdraw the poster and apologize.

Yet the day after its apology, Hunan Juewei released a similar advertisement. Its official WeChat account released 10 advertisements this year, of which five had similar demeaning images of women. Is that the enterprise culture of Hunan Juewei?

We live in the information age, in which almost every enterprise has to compete, in all ways, to attract consumers’ attention. However, in doing so they must follow the basic bottom line of not demeaning and degrading people. The poster has crossed the bottom line, because it exploits women and implies sexually abusing them. Worse still, Hunan Juewei continues releasing similar advertisements, which show it has not recognized its own mistakes.

It should be noted that the advertisements that insult women are not only immoral, but also illegal. The Advertisement Law says that advertisements should not contain anything that implies sex, obscenity, or sexual discrimination. The advertisements of Hunan Juewei have thus broken the law.

By releasing such advertisements, Hunan Juewei should pay for its misdeeds, as well as suffer in the market. Women have their dignity, and when they find they are mistreated, they will complain, even protest against the company.