Doctor takes on sexist billboard, gets it taken down

Dr Ayne Zarof says she filed a complaint with Advertising Standards Malaysia, which took action against the firm responsible for the advertisement.

Dr Ayne Zarof said she took matters into her own hands after coming across the billboard in a social media posting by a friend which made her feel nauseous and angry. “Someone needs to do something about it,” she said.

Ayne said she messaged the company on its Instagram account asking if the advertisement could be changed, saying that there were better ways to go about promoting their product. She also sent them emails but was given the run-around.

On her husband’s advice, she filed a formal complaint with watchdog Advertising Standards Malaysia but with little hope. To her surprise, the agency emailed her saying that it contacted the company involved and within a few weeks, the billboard was taken down.

“It was a quick and straightforward process,” the Straits Times newspaper in Singapore quoted her as saying.

The billboard she found offensive depicted a man in traditional Malay wedding attire shielding his eyes with sunglasses from the serum’s glare, accompanied by a tagline calling the product “the cause of polygamy”.

FMT has sought confirmation from Advertising Standards Malaysia.

In an Instagram post, Ayne said she decided to post a video about the billboard following the stabbing of a secondary school pupil by a schoolmate in Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya.

“It is clear that society and the world still have misogynistic views on women. It’s not only troubling, it is deadly, and we need to change it. Even if we are not active participants in it, not calling it out also makes us complicit,” she said in the video.

In a separate social media post, a netizen with the handle Miriam Devaprasana highlighted advertisements of a local TV show spotted on the MRT which stated: “It’s no use being a pretty wife who is disobedient to her husband”.

Several other advertisements included taglines: “What’s the point of being a highly educated wife who can’t cook?”, “A wife who refuses (her husband’s) sexual advances will be sinful and drawn further from heaven.”

Miriam said in a Facebook post that such statements, “even when framed as quotes, irony, or provocation” would reinforce harmful assumptions and beliefs about women’s roles, autonomy, moral, and religious or spiritual worth.