Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk

Back to thread
Original poster

OAA Apologise for "Career Women Make Bad Mothers" Campaign

4 replies

OAA · 06/01/2010 16:16

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.

Go to post
MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 08/01/2010 18:37

Hello - weeeell I guess our take on it is as follows:

First we're not really bothered about whether it lets anyone off the hook or not - I think Mumsnet has made a point fairly comprehensively and to be honest these legal skirmishes are fairly exhausting and debilitating - on balance we'd rather not have to spend our waking hours fielding calls from Garry (no offence Garry), wading through reported posts and deleting Haikus, when we could be eg baking marmalade muffins with Dan Lepard.

We take your point about playing into (Beta)'s hands SnowWorm et al but from our perspective we'd rather that than an ongoing battle. If this is a way to draw a line then it seems not a bad one - better than the high court anyway.

So... we'd be inclined towards Swedes/ Dittanys' view that we should take the opportunity (and I'm assuming they mean the digital ads that you see up in tube stations) to say something important.

My personal opinion is that if we were to go ahead then it makes sense to address the prejudice against working mothers of the original poster directly - so for example (rather than just any old MN ad). So something along the lines of

Swedes'
Am I being unreasonable .... to want a family and a career?

or
Feminists make the best fathers

or maybe something better.

But on the broader point of do we mind whether an advertising association uses their adspace to put up a message of our choice with our branding on (or not for that matter) for free. Then no, we here at MN Towers, don't.

As always though we are fully aware that we are not the only stakeholder here . So do shout if you disagree.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 09/01/2010 01:15

On further reflection (and a couple of glasses of vino with Tech, the original, who's visiting from America) I'm favouring something along the lines of:

Attention seeking ads are puerile
or
Sexist ads are a waste of space

Think it's actually the only way to do this and not to be a sell out.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 09/01/2010 01:35

Without is better I think, no?
Do you think (Beta) will be up for it?

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 10/01/2010 21:24

I think Beta might be quite reluctant to go with
SEXISM IS BAD FOR BUSINESS
(Garry is quite touchy about any posts suggesting the campaign has been bad for his)

Watch this thread for updates

Tap "Watch" to get all the latest updates

End of posts

There are no more MNHQ posts on this thread

Back to thread