The “Distracted Boyfriend Meme,” which was named the 2017 meme of the year, has been declared sexist by a Swedish Ad watchdog.
The extremely viral meme features a man looking at a passing woman while holding another woman’s hand.
Sweden’s Advertising Ombudsman claimed the meme was “gender discriminatory” after Swedish internet service provider Bahnhof used it in a jobs advertisement on Facebook, according to the Local.
“Looking for a new job?” the Facebook post said in Swedish. “Right now we’re looking for sellers, technicians, and a web designer.”
“It portrays women as interchangeable objects, and that only their appearance is interesting,” said the ombudsman, the body responsible for regulating Sweden’s advertising industry. “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.”
Bahnhof reportedly argued that the meme was used to “show that Bahnhof is an attractive employer 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. [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,” the statement continued. “If we should be punished for anything, it’s for using an old and tired meme.”
Bahnhof also reportedly shared several variations of the meme with characters of varying gender and species to show that gender was not the driving factor behind the use of the meme.
The Local reports: “Sweden’s Advertising Ombudsman has guidelines stating that advertisements should not depict women or men as ‘mere sex objects’ or in other ways which are ‘degrading and clearly sexist’. However, the body only has the ability to make judgments on adverts, not to impose sanctions.”