/ 6 October 1999

ANGER OVER THERON AD BAN

ANTI-RAPE activists have reacted angrily to a decision by the Advertising Standards Board to ban a hard-hitting advert about rape on the grounds that it discriminates against men. The television advert which features Benoni-born Hollywood actor Charlize Theron has sparked a national debate. An industry watchdog called for an advertisement to be changed after it received a petition from a group of 28 men who claimed it cast all males as rapists. The ASA said in a statement on Monday that it found the advert discriminatory on the basis of gender, although it recognises that the commerical has been produced with the “very best of intentions”. In the ad Theron asks: “Many people ask me what South African men are like.” She then recites a list of grim statistics — including the chilling estimate that a woman is raped every 26 seconds in South Africa. The pay-off line: “So I can’t really say what I think of South African men — because there are so few of them.”