A Transport for London ad has been pulled after the UK’s advertising watchdog claimed it reinforced a negative stereotype about black teenagers.
The Advertising Standards Authority ruled that a Facebook video from TfL’s “Act Like a Friend” campaign “featured a harmful stereotype, was irresponsible and likely to cause serious offence.” The regulator said the clip, when viewed on its own, portrayed a black teenage boy as the sole aggressor in a harassment scenario involving a white girl on a bus, reports BBC.
The short video showed the girl being verbally harassed by the black teen, while a white teenage boy sat next to her, boxing her in. TfL argued that both boys intimidated the girl and behaved offensively. But the ASA said the ad did not present the white teen as jointly threatening the victim, concluding that “the only aggressor in the ad was the black teenage boy.”
The Facebook clip was one of three social media edits taken from a two-minute film. The other versions depicted a white male committing a hate crime against a black woman, and a white male targeting another white male. TfL said that Facebook users would typically have seen a mix of all three ads around three times, and estimated the likelihood of someone viewing only the version at issue was roughly 2%.
The ASA rejected that defense, stating that viewers may have encountered the ad in isolation and said it recognized the existence of a negative racial stereotype linking black males with threatening behavior and assessed whether the advert reinforced it. The regulator determined that, standing alone, the video did perpetuate that stereotype.
The ASA ordered that the advert must not appear again in the form complained about and instructed TfL to avoid repeating harmful stereotypes in future campaigns.
In a statement, a TfL spokesperson said: “Our aim is to ensure that our advertising reflects London's diverse population and does not perpetuate any stereotypes, just as we ensure that our services are as fair, accessible and inclusive as possible.
“We're sorry that this social media advert – a shortened version of the full two-minute advert that includes a diverse range of ethnicities – falls below our usual high standards when viewed in isolation.”
