Highlights
- Transport for London's Facebook advertisement has been banned for perpetuating harmful racial stereotypes about black men .
- The ad, part of a campaign to encourage intervention in sexual harassment cases, showed a black teenage boy verbally harassing a white girl on public transport.
- The ASA ruled the advertisement was irresponsible and likely to cause serious offence, despite TfL's claim it was part of a diverse three-ad series.
TfL argued the campaign featured a diverse cast, with the other two shortened ads showing a white man committing hate crimes against a black woman and another white man.
The company stated that, according to its statistics, only 10 per cent of Facebook users would see just one of the three ads, with a mere 2 per cent chance of seeing only the contested version in isolation.
Stereotype concerns raised
The ASA rejected TfL's defence, ruling that the ad could still be seen in isolation and cause harm or offence.
While TfL claimed the full two-minute film showed both a black youth and his white male friend intimidating the victim, with the white character "boxing her in", the ASA disagreed.
"The only aggressor in the ad was the black teenage boy," the watchdog stated. "We understood there was a negative racial stereotype based on the association between black males, including teenagers, and threatening behaviour. We assessed whether the ad reinforced that stereotype."
The ASA concluded that when viewed in isolation, the ad perpetuated negative racial stereotypes about black men as perpetrators of threatening behaviour.
"We concluded that the ad featured a harmful stereotype, was irresponsible and likely to cause serious offence," the ruling stated.
The watchdog ordered TfL to ensure future advertisements are socially responsible and avoid perpetuating harmful stereotypes or causing serious offence on grounds of race.
