A Russian anti-monopoly watchdog’s ruling against a sexist billboard has classified small breasts as a “physical defect.”
The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) in Arkhangelsk received a complaint in April that accused a construction firm billboard of sexism and of being offensive toward women. The ad depicted a model measuring her bra size under the slogan “Our prices are small and our complexes are many.”
A FAS commission ruled on Tuesday that the Akvilon Invest advertisement had violated federal advertising laws, adding that it had projected “an offensive image of women.”
However, the ruling added that an “expert council found that the advertisement points to physical defects in women (small breasts),” leading to a backlash among gender equality activists.
“Sexism is part of the culture,” the author of the “Museum of Sexism” social media hashtag — who took notice of the original billboard earlier this year — Anastasia Krasilnikova, explained to Meduza.
The FAS did not appear to weigh in on Akvilon’s New Year-themed billboard depicting a heavyset woman with a caption reading: “even the discount is fatter after the holidays.”
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