A Swedish advertising watchdog has ruled use of the “distracted boyfriend” meme as sexist.
The popular meme was used in a recruitment drive by an internet services provider, where they labelled the boyfriend as “you”, the girlfriend as “your current workplace”, and the woman he’s staring at as “Bahnhof”, the internet service provider.
The company has defended their use of the meme, saying they wanted to show people that Bahnhof is an attractive employer, however the advertising authority ruled it’s depiction of the attractive woman in the photo was objectifying and gender-discriminatory.
Bahnhof said in their submissions to the advertising watchdog that if they should be punished for anything, they should be punished for using a tired old meme.