Labour leader Ed Miliband criticises ad industry for using sexual imagery targeting youngsters
Labour leader Ed Miliband has warned against the growth of sexualised images targeting youngsters while addressing an audience made up of advertising professionals.
Speaking at the Women in Advertising and Communications London event, Milliband criticised the way that women were being portrayed in society, which included the use of women on banknotes, with Elizabeth Fry having been replaced by Winston Churchill as an example, before criticising the idea of placing Jane Austen on the note.
He also focused his attention to the images of women still being used within the commercial communications landscape.
"We face a crisis of representation in our culture. Now, we all know the changes our culture has gone through in recent years. Many of those are good. Greater prominence is given to fantastic role models for women and girls than there were in the past - Clare Balding, Doreen Lawrence, JK Rowling, Jocelyn Bell Burnell,” he explained.
"Representation is not just about the jobs that people do, it also about how people are seen, about the images we have of each other, because it is partly from those images, we learn to interact.
"It also about how people are seen, about the images we have of each other, because it is partly from those images, we learn to interact,” he stated, adding that there was “a culture of increasingly sexualised images among people” which he claimed urged girls to live up to “the crudest of stereotypes,” within a culture that can easily access violent and pornographic images online.
"Like any parent, I worry about this,” he continued. “There are things that can be done including safer default settings on our computers. It puts a greater responsibility on all of us to do what we can to counter these images and not just by doing all we can to protect children in schools and on the internet.
"Schools should always ensure the aspirations of girls and boys are encouraged. And schools should offer proper relationship education at all key stages to ensure all our children have a proper chance to understand what they have a right to expect."
This week the ASA banned an advert by William Hill,which featured a camera shot passing a female model’s chest, which it claimed linked gambling with seduction.