reed.co.uk Ad Banned

A radio advertisement for the UK recruiter website reed.co.uk has been found to be offensive by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) due to its portrayal of an angry boss.

The ad, which moved 13 people to lodge complaints, features a boss berating his employee in German.

“Boss a bit of a tyrant? Find your perfect boss on the UK’s biggest job site,” the ad’s voice-over states.

“We noted the ad used a German speaker, rather than someone speaking English, to portray the boss as ‘a bit of a tyrant’ and the humour derived from a stereotype at the expense of German people,” The Press Association quotes the ASA as saying. “We considered that the portrayal suggested that German people were more likely to be unreasonable or aggressive to others.”

“We concluded that, given the extreme reaction and aggressive tone of the German-speaking boss, the ad reinforced a negative and outdated cultural stereotype of German people as overpowering and tyrannical and therefore the ad had the potential to cause serious offence to some listeners,” the ASA said.

reed.co.uk has not yet commented on the ASA’s ruling.

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