An promoting marketing campaign run by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) that includes a white jail officer and a black prisoner has been banned for perpetuating adverse stereotypes linking race with felony exercise.
The Fb advert selling jobs at HMP Wormwood Scrubs in London featured a jail officer speaking to an inmate sporting an afro comb in his hair, alongside the caption: “We’re key employees, downside solvers, life changers.”
The Promoting Requirements Authority (ASA), which stated that the advert displayed an “imbalanced energy dynamic” between the lads, obtained a criticism that it perpetuated adverse stereotypes referring to black males and felony exercise that was prone to trigger severe offence.
The MoJ stated the advert featured a real-life jail officer and inmate, and as such argued it was not an “inaccurate or unfair illustration of the kind of engagement that may have been seen between officers and prisoners”.
Not one of the different photographs used within the wider advert marketing campaign confirmed white jail officers alongside ethnic minority prisoners, the MoJ stated.
The MoJ added that England and Wales had 117 prisons with 21,000 officers and about 80,000 prisoners, which meant there can be many situations of jail employees and inmates of various ethnicities interacting.
The ASA stated that the UK advertising and marketing code states that specific care should be taken to keep away from inflicting offence on numerous grounds of “protected traits” resembling race.
“We understood that there was a adverse stereotype primarily based on the affiliation between black males and felony exercise,” the ASA stated. “The inmate wore an afro decide comb in his hair – a instrument we understood was uniquely related to black tradition.”
The advert watchdog stated that the marketing campaign referenced the white jail officer as being a “downside solver” and “life changer”, whereas the black prisoner was “depicted as a felony”.
“It confirmed an imbalanced energy dynamic with a smiling white jail officer and a black, institutionalised prisoner,” stated the ASA, which banned the advert from getting used once more. “We thought of that the advert’s give attention to the constructive qualities of the white jail officer and adverse casting of the black prisoner was prone to be seen as perpetuating a adverse racial stereotype. We concluded that the advert was prone to trigger severe offence on the grounds of race by reinforcing adverse stereotypes about black males.”