Female breasts in bulbs ads in Vilejka: is this sexism?

Veranika Hil has noticed a truck advertising electronic goods with the help of female breasts. The young woman is indignant:

“If such advertisements are allowed and approved in Belarus, there must be a huge penis in push-up underwear next to that picture. That’s it. Then there will be equality and it will be a world without sexism.”

"Don’t you like beautiful breasts?"

Euroradio has phoned Yauhen Zahorats (owner of the truck). He does not think that the advertisement is sexist and even likes the fact that it attracts attention.

"This truck has been parked near the shop for two months and nobody has ever complained about it. On the contrary, people are paying attention and are happy. Sometimes I use the truck and then drivers start smiling at me and giving me thumbs-up. I have heard about a hundred or two hundred opinions – everything is fine.”

The advertisement has bene approved, Yauhen Zahorats said. The picture is from the Internet. The advertising agency chose it out of 40 variants, the businessman said.

"Why would female breasts make anyone angry? Don’t you like beautiful breasts? If some women do not like them, it is probable because they are jealous since theirs are not as good-looking.”

What is wrong about the advertisement?

The advertisement is illogical, Volha Shparaha, PhD and head of the association “Modern Society, Ethics and Policy” of the European College of Liberal Arts in Belarus noted.

“These people are selling electric appliances. What do breasts have to do with it? They have nothing do to with it and it makes the advertisement openly sexist. They are using this advertisement to draw attention to bulbs by turning female breasts into a bulb support.”

Are there many advertisements of the kind in Belarus?

Advertisements making use of women’s bodies regularly appear in Belarus. Underwear producers, cellphone operators and Internet service providers are abusing this method. The Ministry of Tarde forbade broadcasting this horse-radish “ABC” commercial earlier:

Sexism is a very effective and subtle tool, advertiser Yan Karpau commented on the scandal connected with a Mark Formelle advertisement in 2016. It is very easy to make mistakes while using it:

"When we are speaking about maternal love – it is like a hammer. It hits everything that can be hit. It does not matter whether such an advertisement lacks taste or not. Sexism is much subtler. It can easily become vulgar and it happens in most cases."