An SEO advert and People Per Hour has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The ASA upheld 19 complaints against the advert who believed that the ad perpetuated harmful gender stereotypes by depicting a woman running a business in a patronising way and by implying that women were not technologically skilled.

People Per Hour responded to the complaint and acknowledged that the advert might unintentionally come across as sexist and agreed to remove the word “girl” from the advert and issue a public apology on their website where they explained the intention of the message.

“While we agree that the messaging has clearly missed the mark, we would like to clarify that this advert was never intended to be patronising or belittling to women.

The term Girl Boss was coined by the Founder of Nasty Gal Sophia Amorusu, one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time. Girl Boss is a well-known buzzword and the intention of using this term was to empower women, not condescend.”

The agency responsible for the adverts did not feel that the ad was likely to cause offence. Since the ruling, they are going to carry out some training with the Ad Copy team to ensure they considered wording, such as that in the ad, which could be misinterpreted or cause offence.

What do you think the Ad Copy should be for this advert, our favourite is from Emma Sexton from myww, “you be the CEO, We’ll do the SEO”