If you’re reading this, chances are that you saw the “If you’re a woman, don’t bother reading this ad” header image and got triggered or you clicked out of curiosity.
But regardless of the reason why you clicked, you did it anyway and that’s the whole point of why this “If you’re a woman, don’t bother reading this ad” thing exists in the first place.
Ads Standards, Australia’s independent advertising complaints adjudicator, has launched a provocative new “Kinder Conditions” campaign that aims to hook you in with a controversial statement before slapping you with a dose of education.
The aim of the “Kinder Conditions” campaign is to highlight a number of social issues in advertising, such as sexism, racism, stereotyping and misguided claims, as a way to deliver more socially progressive ads.
Fiona Jolly, CEO of Ad Standards says that she hopes “Kinder Conditions” will encourage and educate the public about diversity and inclusion in advertising.
But rather than getting people to file more complaints whenever an ad is offensive, the campaign is aiming to have people nominate companies and businesses who are actually doing well with their ads as a way of raising awareness of the current standards of the industry. Not only that, the “Kinder Conditions” campaign is also aiming to encourage companies to “exceed” the current requirements of advertising codes and to have more “socially progressive messaging” going forward.
So if you’re triggered after seeing these ads, which includes other seemingly inflammatory slogans like “This ad is for white people only” and “This ad is brainwashing your children,” then the campaign is working as intended.
It is a brilliant bait and switch from Ad Standards as a way to educate the public on outdated advertising practices while also Trojan horsing in a lesson about equality and inclusivity.
Nothing like a bit of reverse psychology and real-life clickbait as a way to school people on ads. So if you’re triggered after seeing these ads – which include seemingly inflammatory slogans like “This ad is for white people only” and “This ad is brainwashing your children” – then Ad Standards’ “Kinder Conditions” campaign is working as intended.