Rupert Murdoch owned magazine forced to apologise over 'sexist' advert using woman in underwear to advertise intern positions

The News Corp Australia owned publication said it made a 'serious error in judgement'

Heather Saul
Tuesday 13 January 2015 15:41 GMT
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This advert was posted on the Instagram page belonging to Sunday Style, a weekly fashion and beauty insert with a circulation 900,000 (Pic: Suzanne Carbone)
This advert was posted on the Instagram page belonging to Sunday Style, a weekly fashion and beauty insert with a circulation 900,000 (Pic: Suzanne Carbone)

A fashion magazine owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp Australia has apologised after it used a controversial image of a model posing in her underwear while on her hands and knees to advertise a position available for an intern.

The provocative advert featured a model, wearing only lingerie and a pair of high-heeled shoes, on all fours on a bed with 'interns wanted' written across it. It was posted on the Instagram page belonging to Sunday Style, a weekly fashion and beauty insert with a circulation of about 900,000.

The “sexist” advert, which has since been removed from its Instagram page, caused outrage when it was highlighted by journalist Suzanne Carbone, who posted the image on Twitter.

One Twitter user blasted it as “demeaning”, while others questioned how the magazine thought it appropriate to use the image in the first place.

The publication later insisted it takes its intern scheme “very seriously” when it published an apology on Instagram, which read: “We made an error in judgment today with an image used in a recent Instagram post calling for interns that has since been taken down.

"We take our intern program seriously and apologise for any offence caused.”

No More Page 3, a group campaigning against the inclusion of topless women in the The Sun, told Media Tel it was "ridiculously inappropriate" to use such an image.

She said: "However, perhaps most interesting to us is the fact that the ad was withdrawn and apologised for. What a shame that this understanding of what is appropriate and in context doesn't extend to the UK.

"Perhaps, overall, women are not to be taken as seriously - or maybe Mr Murdoch and team feel the representation of women in national news is somehow not as 'serious' an issue? We think it is and that women should always be taken just as seriously as men are."

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