'Boycott companies that exploit women and girls this Christmas'

Collective Shout’s latest campaign

A “Cross ‘Em Off” list calls Christmas shoppers to boycott companies that objectify women and sexualise girls through their products and marketing.

The annual shoppers’ warning list is released by Collective Shout, a “grassroots campaigning movement” that seeks to equip consumers with in-depth awareness of brands and stores which leverage unethical  “sexploitation” in their advertising.

“First launched a decade ago, the blacklist is a collation of corporate offenders which have objectified women and sexualised girls to sell products and services,” stated Collective Shout.

“Decades of empirical research demonstrates that sexualised and objectifying portrayals of women have a negative impact on attitudes towards women and their treatment.”

The sex shop Honey Birdette holds the No. 1 spot on the anti-shopping list because, according to Collective Shout, they have display windows filled with “pornified representations of women to an all-ages audience in shopping centres. These full-size images feature women in sexualised poses …”

“Ad Standards has upheld 44 complaints against the company, however Honey Birdette refuses to comply.”

Also on the “Cross ‘Em Off” list are major shopping centres, online marketplace Etsy and cosmetics company Mecca. Mobile mechanics UltraTune feature prominently because it “has attracted hundreds of complaints for their sexist ads which depict women as mindless bimbos who can’t operate their vehicles.

“The company continues to demonstrate disrespect for women by hiring high-profile men with histories of rape and violence against women to star in their ads, including Mike Tyson and Charlie Sheen.”

“Sex sells” is a slogan that this year’s “Cross ‘Em Off” list wants to dismantle. “It’s time for these companies to stop profiting from sexualising and objectifying women and girls. If they don’t understand Corporate Social Responsibility, if they don’t understand ethics, maybe they will understand when they start losing money.”

In July, Collective Shout led a successful public campaign against the sale of child-sex dolls on the giant online retailer Alibaba. Collective Shout is also responsible in part for the removal of “Wicked vans” from Australian roads which promoted abusive and sexist slogans against women.

Other Collective Shout campaigns include awareness of the exposure risks to sexual predators on Instagram, and child-sex trafficking crimes of Pornhub.

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