Why the Philadelphia ad ban will force marketers to get creative

You know how it is. One moment you’re ogling bagels with cream cheese, trying to decide between the salmon and the avocado toppings, and the next… you’ve left your child on a conveyor belt. It happens to the best of us, right?

Not according to the ASA. It has banned a Philadelphia ad for flouting advertising rules. No, we’re not talking unrealistic claims – show me a parent who hasn’t at one point favoured a bagel over their child – but gender stereotyping. In the offending ad, men are the ones forgoing their offspring in the name of cream cheese. That makes it one of the first ads to fall foul of the new rules introduced at the tail end of last year, which aim to crack down on gender stereotyping.

It’s not just the advertising watchdog that has taken offence. The ad attracted 128 complaints from the public, too. Perhaps from men who felt their parenting could withstand the test of Philadelphia. Perhaps from women who felt their parenting couldn’t. Either way, the message is clear: there is no gender predilection for leaving a baby on a conveyor belt of food.

It can feel like a bit of an overreaction. The ad was clearly designed to be tongue-in-cheek. It was looking to convey the deliciousness of Philadelphia, rather than to pass comment on men’s parenting skills. In its defence, Mondelez said it had chosen men to avoid the stereotype of depicting women as the main caregivers.

Wherever you stand on the debate, it could change advertising for the better. Because if nothing else, it will force advertisers to look beyond the familiar tropes. We’ve seen numerous variations on the useless dad/practical mum theme – in many cases, presented in a less artful way than the Philadelphia ad.

You know the drill. The man of the house is confounded by a simple domestic task – like, say, what to do with an iron. In swoops the resident domestic goddess, who reveals she uses this magic steam machine to get the creases out of shirts. Men are concerned with their work, see, not the practicality of shirts. Cue the product that can make ironing comprehensible to the male brain.

If not universally offensive, it’s a routine that is starting to feel distinctly tired. Banning the Philadelphia ad means advertisers will have to get more creative. So at least we can expect more imaginative marketing in areas such as baby products or household items, which have typically relied on these tropes. So here’s to men abandoning their babies in favour of the latest ironing water.