OAA Apologise for "Career Women Make Bad Mothers" Campaign

[OAA]

The OAA are running a campaign to demonstrate the power of outdoor advertising to drive people online. This is being done in conjunction with a new website called ?Britainthinks.com? which encourages debate amongst the people of Britain.

We regret any misunderstanding that led to feelings of offence on the part of members of the Mumsnet community.

The intention of the website is to generate debate by posing questions that are deemed to be socially relevant by members of society.

We did not intend to cause any offence and we would stress that the questions posed were not the opinions of the OAA or any of its members.

Three posters were designed to initiate the debate using sport, life and politics and these are supported by dozens of other questions on the website itself.

Regrettably the question relating to ?career women? has caused offence and the OAA unreservedly apologises to anyone who has been offended. This was not our intention and, to ensure that this misunderstanding does not persist, instructions have been given to remove this poster.

Subject to the vagaries of the weather, all copy will be removed as soon as possible. The sites currently carrying this poster will be either blanked-out or carry one of the other designs. The poster will also be removed from the ?Britainthinks.com? website. All Digital posters have already been removed.

Well done sisters.

"Misunderstanding" my arse.

Guardian says ad removed after complaints
Yay,it was vapid and deliberately provocative

"The campaign was devised by veteran creative Garry Lace, from the Beta agency, to show the power of billboard advertising as an alternative to digital advertising. He was unavailable for comment at the time of publication"

i bet he was unavailable for comment

well done to MrsBaldwin for kicking this all off

Yeah - and loads of them work in the ad industry.

(What percentage of agency board directors are mothers?)

So they wheel out the girly:

'The strategy head of Beta, Sharon Johnson, said: "There has been a misunderstanding with an important mothers' forum about this campaign which is about sparking a debate. It is not what the campaign thinks. But rather than offend people the decision has been taken to replace the posters saying 'Working women make bad mothers' with other slogans which work just as effectively."

Actually, Sharon it is what we think. Your company chose not to spark debate with statements such as 'gay men aren't safe babysitters' or 'poor people shouldn't have children', you thought women were so used to casual sexism that we'd not bother. Shame on you for being part of this nonsense.

While we have the OAA here, I'd just like to give their equal opportunities policy a roadtest with three questions:

How many women do you have on your board of directors and what is the ratio of women to men on that board?

How many women executives do you have at sub-board level and what is the ratio of women to men at that level?

How did you happen to pick casual misogyny to initiate a debate?

An apology is appreciated, but please do not expect us to buy the 'misunderstanding' statement. Yet another insult to intelligence.

I think % of mothers is more relevant than %of women. It tends to be motherhood which scuppers a woman's career in adland.

Mrs Baldwin - Now that is how to run a campaign. Well done you, and all the people you motivated to write in. High fives. Respect. And awe.

oh, soory, yes. Well done to MrsB and the other writer-iners.

MrsBaldwin - It would be marvellous if the )AA replaced their misguided slogan with "How on earth do men manage to combine a full-time career and children?"

People ask women this all the time. They never ask men.

I have just noticed that one of my posts from yesterday has been deleted. I have no idea why, I can't remember libelling or personally insulting anybody.

OAA - Might you let Mumsnet come up with a replacement slogan?

How about "Men who do more housework get more sex"?

That one's true, btw. (In general, obv - I'm sure there are exceptions.)

well done everyone

I'm pretty sure I didn't understand.

If I wrote 'black people steal' on a bus, I would rightly be not allowed to use the defence 'you have misunderstood' when the police came to discuss it with me and press charges would I? Because reasonably some black people might steal, in the same way that some career women probably do make bad mothers.

That's not a misunderstanding. I cannot believe you did not know how offensive that was. So you have not only been hugely offensive but now you are being patronising too!

Pathetic - that's what it is - shame on you!

I notice that the other slogans used in the campaign are not really controversial, nor do they single out a group.

So, good on you OAA for pulling this offensive, misogynistic ad, but a huge boo hiss for being such twunts as to allow it out in your name to begin with

result - I am SURPRISED

well DONE MrsB

well done miladies

Im sorry but that apology is a load of f'ing tosh. its not just mumsnetters that are offended - but pretty much every working mother (oh and yes, by the way, some of us work in advertising and marketing too) and also it is a completely irrelevant social question.

lets just sit back and wait and see which group tosser gary managed to piss off next.

The very term "career women" is so astonishly outdated.

It's like referring to Take That as "a popular beat combo".

(Who are the Beatles?)

Wow! Congratulations MrsBaldwin and all the other writeriners - very impressive result

The apology is however a load of damage limitation tosh that still doesn't address the basic problem: that no one in the making of the campaign realised/cared that the statement was misogynistic crap, inappropriate sexist drivel that if similar had been said about any other group, it would not of been ok'd.

Admen, for example, are...

Oh how marvellous!