Ad description
A paid-for Reddit ad for Seeking.com, a dating website, was seen on 16 July 2024. Text in the ad stated, “Seeking.com is where successful men go to date beautiful women. Welcome To Seeking. The Best Site For Luxury Dating. Trusted By Over 40 Million Members.”
The ad contained a video that featured a grey-haired man in a business suit sitting on a beach, looking at a photo on his phone of a woman. He then looked to the right to see four young women in bikinis and swimwear running up the beach towards him. He threw his phone up in the air and jumped up; one of the women winked at him as she passed. He ran down the beach, whilst being chased by the women.
The ad then showed the mobile phone with text that stated, “BE THE CATCH!” whilst in the background, the man and four women could be seen falling to the ground and giggling could be heard. Text on the phone then stated, “DATE ON SEEKING.COM. JOIN FREE”. The ad ended with the man sitting on the beach and text on the screen that stated, “4:1 WOMEN TO MEN IN REAL LIFE”.
Issue
The complainant, who believed that the ad was sexist and perpetuated negative gender stereotypes, challenged whether it was harmful and offensive.Response
W8 Tech Cyprus t/a Seeking.com stated that the ad was intended to be a humorous representation of their dating service, by making men, who were typically overrepresented on dating sites, feel prized. That theme was, in the dating context, quite ironic. The ad was written and directed by women.They did not believe that people’s romantic or dating preferences should be labelled as sexist or stereotyping, nor should the marketing of such preferences be limited or censored. Women should have the opportunity to make their own choices in terms of who they dated, and limiting ads about the kind of relationships that were available to them had a chilling effect on women’s perceptions of socially acceptable options and reinforced historical gender roles built of depriving women to make their own choices. Telling women or anyone else what their permissible dating options were may have the effect of suppressing women and marginal groups. They accepted that whilst their cheekiness may have been too much for some, they did not believe that dating preferences should have been the basis for removing content.They said that they would abide by the ASA’s findings and had removed the ad.Assessment
Upheld
The CAP Code stated that advertisements must not include gender stereotypes that were likely to cause harm, or serious or widespread offence. CAP guidance said that ads may feature people undertaking gender-stereotypical roles, but they should take care to avoid suggesting that stereotypical roles or characteristics were always uniquely associated with one gender.
We noted that the aim of the ad was to communicate the specific dating services that Seeking.com offered, of matching “successful men” with “the most beautiful women”, in a humorous way. However, we considered that the contrast in the ad between the smartly, and fully dressed grey-haired man in a business suit and the younger women chasing him along the beach, partially dressed in bikinis and swimwear, implied a disparity in status and seriousness between the man and the women, and perpetuated stereotypes that men held value due to intelligence and business success, whereas women held value as objects, related to their physical appearance. Whilst we noted that the claims “BE THE CATCH!” and “4:1 WOMEN TO MEN IN REAL LIFE” reflected the high ratio of women to men on the Seeking.com website, we also considered that these claims, seen together with the other elements of the ad, implied that the man was a prize for multiple, beautiful women to fight over, and that he could take his pick from any of a number of beautiful, younger women. We also considered that the ad reinforced the stereotype that young, attractive women wanted to date older, successful men because of their wealth and status.
For those reasons, we concluded that the ad perpetuated sexist and negative gender stereotypes and was likely to cause harm and widespread offence.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 1.3 (Social Responsibility), 4.1 and 4.9 (Harm and Offence).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told W8 Tech Cyprus Ltd t/a Seeking.com to ensure that they did not portray sexist or negative gender stereotypes in future marketing communications.
