TV and film advertising for Samsung products, including a smartwatch, featured a woman getting up at 2 a.m. and going for a run in a big city wearing wireless headphones. A voice encouraged the idea of running at unusual hours, stating, “Sleep at night. I ran faster. Push harder. Follow the herd. Not for me. I’m running on a different schedule. Mine.” The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received 27 complaints from viewers who felt that, in light of a series of recent high-profile cases where women had been assaulted in similar circumstances, the ad was harmful and irresponsible for encouraging unsafe behaviour. In April, women’s safety group Reclaim These Streets described the campaign as “beyond unrealistic” in light of the death of Ashling Murphy, a 23-year-old teacher from Ireland who was attacked after going for a run in January. Her death sparked vigils and led to the #SheWasOnARun movement as women shared stories of harassment while running. Samsung Electronics acknowledged that the ad “may have been considered insensitive by some viewers” and apologized, saying it would not be broadcast again in the UK. The South Korean electronics company has asked the ASA to investigate whether the ads breach the UK’s marketing code. Samsung faces criticism for ad showing woman going for a run at 2am – video “The ads were not intended to encourage women to run at night,” the company said. “Their aim was to celebrate individuality and show the use of Samsung products while exercising, whatever the time of day.” The company said the unsafe element was the risk of “predatory individuals” – not running alone at night – although it admitted the risks could be higher in a city or at night. An advertising ban could lead to “harmful gender stereotyping” if it was interpreted to mean that advertisers could therefore only show men in activities that could pose a risk of being attacked by a predator. “[The risk is] it is also featured in several other scenarios that appear in the ad, such as people in a taxi alone, walking alone at any time of day, getting drinks at a bar [and] going on a first date,” Samsung said. Clearcast, the body responsible for checking whether adverts are likely to comply with UK code before they are broadcast, said that if the ad was banned it “could set a precedent for wider victim blaming, making it difficult evaluating future ads.” The Cinema Advertising Association (CAA) said that if the ad was found to be irresponsible for encouraging unsafe practices, “this could be seen as the police saying that women should not venture into town centers after dark. This attitude, understandably, has been accused of victim-blaming.’ The ASA investigation cleared the ads of breaching UK code, finding they did not encourage an unsafe practice and were not irresponsible. “We recognized that some care would be needed when going for a run alone in the middle of the night, particularly for women,” the ASA said. “And we felt that people were likely to realize that they could be putting themselves in a vulnerable position.” Subscribe to the Business Today daily email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter @BusinessDesk The woman in the ads did not appear to be behaving recklessly or obviously putting herself in danger, it ruled. “The woman featured in the ads appeared alert and aware of her surroundings and was seen running in well-lit, central streets where other people were present. We felt that running alone at night, by itself, was not likely to result in harm or injury. While we recognized that an attack could happen, this was outside of an individual’s control and could also happen in other, everyday scenarios and at all hours of the day or night.”
