'Distracted boyfriend meme' is sexist, rules Swedish advertising watchdog

It's been declared degrading to both men and women

(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

It’s one of the most iconic memes of the past couple of years: the distracted boyfriend.

It’s been applied to all sorts of situations, from Love Island to Brexit.

Now, however, the ‘distracted boyfriend’ meme - in which a young man’s head is turned by a passing woman, leaving the woman whose hand he’s holding aghast - has been criticised for being sexist by an advertising watchdog.

According to Sweden’s Advertising Ombudsman, the use of the meme, by a company looking to recruit new employees, is “degrading” to both men and women.

Bahnhof, a Swedish internet service provider, posted the meme with the girlfriend labelled as ‘your current workplace,’ the distracted boyfriend as ‘you’ and the passing woman as ‘Bahnhof.’

The meme, which first went viral in summer 2017, was shared on Facebook alongside a caption encouraging people to apply for jobs as “salespeople, technicians and skilled web designers”.

However many people took offence with the use of the meme, with some commenting on Facebook that they thought it was “sexist” and “unprofessional.”

And the Swedish advertising watchdog has criticised the meme - which was shared on both Bahnhof’s Facebook and Instagram accounts - as being “gender-discriminatory” due to its depiction of women as “interchangeable” and “sex objects.”

After the advert was reported, Sweden’s Advertising Ombudsman came to a unanimous decision and made the following judgement: “It portrays women as interchangeable objects, and that only their appearance is interesting.”

The statement also pointed out that there was no clear link between the objectified image of women and Bahnhof as a company.

“According to the committee, the objectification is reinforced by the fact that women are designated as workplace representatives while the man, as the recipient of the advertisement, is being produced as an individual,” The Local reported the judgement as saying.

However they also pointed out that the meme is not just degrading to women but to men too: “It gives the impression that men might change female partners in the same way they change jobs. One notifier pointed out that Bahnhof may put off female applicants with the advertisement.”

The CEO of Bahnhof, Jon Karlung, released a statement in defence of the use of the meme, arguing that the aim was solely to make the company appear attractive “and that those who have a slightly less good employer could be interested in us.”

“Everyone who follows the internet and meme culture knows how the meme is used and interpreted,” the statement read. “[Whether someone is a] man, woman or neutral gender is often irrelevant in this context.

“We are an internet company and are conversant in this, as are those who would look for a job with us, so we turned to that target group. If we should be punished for anything, it’s for using an old and tired meme.”