TfL advert banned for ‘reinforcing negative stereotypes about black men’

The advert depicted a black male verbally harassing a young girl accompanied by a white male friend, who sat down close to the victim ‘boxing her in’

An advert for Transport for London’s new ‘Act Like a Friend’ campaign has been banned for reinforcing negative stereotypes about black men.

The Facebook ad, part of the campaign encouraging people to intervene safely if they witness sexual harassment or hate crime on the TfL network, depicted a black male verbally harassing a young girl accompanied by a white male friend, who sat down close to the victim ‘boxing her in’.

A viewer complained that the ad was irresponsible, harmful and offensive for perpetuating negative racial stereotypes about black teenage boys.

TfL told the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that both characters intimidated the victim and displayed offensive behaviour.

The ad was one of three made for social media which had been cut from a two-minute ‘Act Like a Friend’ film.

The ASA ruled that the ad must not appear again in the format complained about (Getty)

The two other cut-downs featured a white male committing a hate crime against a black woman and a white male committing a hate crime against another white male.

TfL said that a typical member of the Facebook audience would have been served any combination of the campaign ads three times, and estimated that the probability of a person seeing only the cut-down that was the subject of the complaint to be around 2 per cent.

TfL said they used a bespoke casting diversity tracker to ensure they were representative of London’s population across all their campaigns.

ASA concluded that the ad featured “a harmful stereotype, was irresponsible and likely to cause serious offence” (ASA)

The ASA said it was possible to see the ad in isolation.

It said: “We understood there was a negative racial stereotype based on the association between black males, including teenagers, and threatening behaviour. We assessed whether the ad reinforced that stereotype.

“The ad showed a black teenage boy verbally harassing a white girl. While the white male friend was shown in the ad and the two-minute film, the ad did not show him as jointly intimidating the victim. The only aggressor in the ad was the black teenage boy.

“Although we understood that TfL had intended to present a range of diversity and scenarios across their campaign, we considered the ad, when seen in isolation, had the effect of perpetuating a negative racial stereotype about black men as perpetrators of threatening behaviour.

“On that basis, we concluded that the ad featured a harmful stereotype, was irresponsible and likely to cause serious offence.”

The ASA ruled that the ad must not appear again in the format complained about, adding: “We told TfL to ensure that future ads were socially responsible. We also told them to avoid perpetuating harmful stereotypes and causing serious offence on the grounds of race.”

A TfL spokesperson said: “Our aim is to ensure that our advertising reflects London’s diverse population and does not perpetuate any stereotypes, just as we ensure that our services are as fair, accessible and inclusive as possible.

“We’re sorry that this social media advert – a shortened version of the full two-minute advert that includes a diverse range of ethnicities – falls below our usual high standards when viewed in isolation.

“While very few people will have seen this shortened advert in isolation, we are committed to upholding the ASA’s standards for all of our campaigns and are no longer using this shortened advert in our ongoing campaign to encourage people to support other passengers targeted by hate crime, sexual offences and harassment on our transport network.”