The Popular Distracted Boyfriend Meme Is ‘Objectifying,’ Swedish Ad Court Rules
A stock photo of a distracted boyfriend turning away from his annoyed girlfriend to stare after another woman was turned into a wildly popular meme—and Sweden‘s advertising court found the meme is sexist.
The stock image, whose official title is ““Disloyal Man Walking With His Girlfriend and Looking Amazed at Another Seductive Girl” by photographer Antonio Guillem, was one of the most widely shared memes in 2017. It quickly became one of the internet’s favorite memes with people using the distracted boyfriend imagery to comment on everything and anything. It was so ubiquitous it was even named meme of the year by the Know Your Meme website and was turned into a Halloween costume. Now, however it has been ruled sexist and objectifying by Sweden’s advertising ombudsman, a part of the self-regulating ad industry.
The ads were hauled into ad court after the internet services provider Bahnhof used the image in recruitment ads posted on Facebook. Their take on the meme labeled the boyfrien..