I've worked for American firms during my main working life, just as we saw the rise of political correctness (PC) and the PC-police.
It got to the stage where you couldn't even say "I like your new hairstyle", without falling foul of the PC-police (I know, as one of my male colleagues in Chicago got a reprimand from HR for saying that to a femail co-worker).
The result was that the American guys and gals would love coming to London, as we were far freer and more irreverent.
Maybe that's changed as a lot of our old ways are being worn down through gradual PC-creep.
Christmas is now Winter Holidays and my local pub has renamed itself (it was the Cock and Bull, it's now ... no, I'm not going there).
Anyways, in a new storm of controversy, Barclaycard's Winter Holiday Advert has been slammed as being sexist.
Here's the ad ...
On first viewing, it's a fantastic piece of marketing and branding, but the storm is all about the scene with the Barbie doll. As the New Statesman points out:
The father is shopping for his son’s present, when a Barbie approaches. Now, it’s already a dangerous area to slip in “they’re plastic” as an implied reason to disregard her flirting, but they then follow into the shark-infested waters of “on your bike dolly, it’s for his son”.
C'mon ... isn't that just funny?
Oh, maybe not.
Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...
