Michael Binetti Quoted in National Post: Philadelphia Cream Cheese and Volkswagen ads axed due to ‘harmful’ gender stereotyping

Michael Binetti, partner at Affleck Greene McMurtry LLP, is quoted in The National Post: Philadelphia Cream Cheese and Volkswagen ads axed due to ‘harmful’ gender stereotyping, published August 14, 2019.

In June 2019, the U.K. Advertising Standards Authority implemented a new set of rules to prevent the representation of gender stereotypes. Commercials for Philadelphia Cream Cheese and Volkswagen were the first to be banned under the new guidelines.

Responding to this issue, Michael commented: “Is it a literal interpretation, in which case you could find many parts of most ads (to be inappropriate). I don’t think we’ve done that in Canada. I hope that’s not what we do in the future. If you go looking for it, you’ll find it anywhere using an extremely literal interpretation of the guidelines.”

Michael is a member of Advertising Standards Canada.

To see more of Michael’s commentary and analysis, please visit Michael Binetti on thelitigator.ca.