Is This Renault Clio Ad Sexist?

The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has banned the “Va Va Voom” advert for the Renault Clio entitled Two Unsuspecting Guys Take The New Renault Clio For A Test Drive (above), ruling that it “objectifies women”. However, there doesn’t seem to be any such ruling for the alternative Two Unsuspecting Girls Take The New Renault Clio For A Test Drive, which is essentially identical but with men scantily clad and flexing their muscles instead of women in their bras. So what’s the difference?

The ASA received a complaint that the advert objectified women, and then upon investigation was concerned that the ad featured “a number of shots of the women’s breasts and bottoms, in which their heads were obscured, and which we considered invited viewers to view the women as sexual objects”.

Renault for its part claims that the dress of the dancers is a play on French culture and the outfits from Moulin Rouge, with the ad not overtly sexual.

It may be hard to argue that the advert is not overtly sexual with a fair bit of gyrating going on, but it seems relatively evenly split between scantily clad women in bras, and topless men flexing their muscles. So surely either both should be banned, or neither?