Strange, violent, shaver adds from Saudi Arabia

These ads by Bold Creative Boutique, in Riyadh, compare precision shaving to precision slaughter of what look like unarmed civilians by Roman soldiers:

I know there are cultural differences in advertising, but considering this one was translated into English and submitted to Ads of The World, an international point of view is warranted. And the view from here is, "WTF?!?"

Should we expect global brands to respect universal human rights?

Following the scorn heaped upon IKEA for deleting all adult women from the Saudi version of its catalogue, I think it's time to start talking about how we hold global brands accountable for how they operate in places without basic human rights.

This week, I noticed a picture going around that claimed to be from the door of a Pizza Hut in Jeddah:

Digging a little deeper, I found a 2007 blog post with more documentation of major brands giving in to sexist Saudi social and religious policy:

In this case, the policy of sex segregation is because women must expose their faces to eat, so no unmarried and unrelated man can be allowed to see them.

At McDonald's, the segregation is has created the "need" for restaurants to build parallel and non-communicating sections for (male) "singles" and "families".

Admittedly, this was five years ago. But has anything changed?

From 2009:

An American businesswoman was carted off to jail by religious police in Saudi Arabia for sitting with a male colleague at a Starbucks in Riyadh, the Times of London reported.
The woman, who spent a day behind bars, was strip-searched and forced to sign a false confession before being released, the newspaper said. The Times declined to publish her name at her request. 

The 37-year-old businesswoman works for a finance company in Riyadh. Her problem began when her office lost electricity. She and her male colleagues then went to a nearby Starbucks to use the coffee shop's Internet connection. 

She sat with a male colleague in the Starbucks' family area, the only place women are allowed to sit with men.  

"Some men came up to us with very long beards and white dresses. They asked 'Why are you here together?' I explained about the power being out in our office. They got very angry and told me what I was doing was a great sin," she told the Times. 

Following her arrest and interrogation, the woman was hauled before a judge.
"He said 'You are sinful and you are going to burn in hell.' I told him I was sorry. I was very submissive. I had given up. I felt hopeless," she told the Times. 

The newspaper said the woman had received a visit from officials at the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia. A U.S. official told The Times that it was being treated as "an internal Saudi matter" and refused to comment on her case.

And this year:

Western companies on Saudi land must comply with Saudi religious regulations. Fast-food restaurants such as McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, and other US firms, for instance, maintain sex-segregated eating zones in their restaurants. The facilities in the women's section are usually lower in quality.

I will just flat out say it: I don't think brands that want to do business in a world that respects the equality and dignity of women should be doing business in places where women have no basic rights. Full stop.

Recently, I refused to work on a project for a North American educational institution (NDA prevents me from naming names) that wanted to recruit teachers for a Saudi school. They would happily accept applications from anyone, but in reality only wanted white males. Fuck that.

Everyone — EVERYONE — deserves the same rights and opportunities as everyone else, and cannot be denied them simply because of what's between their legs. Whether that is a major right such as education and voting, or more mundane things like being able to drive or buy junk food, the continued denial of this equality is an affront to anyone who believes women are free individuals.

IKEA, when they were called out by the media in their base of Sweden, issued this statement:

We should have reacted and realized that excluding women from the Saudi Arabian version of the catalogue is in conflict with the IKEA Group values. We are now reviewing our routines to safeguard a correct content presentation from a values point-of-view in the different versions of the IKEA Catalogue worldwide.

You may not like where I'm going with this post. After all, don't universal human rights guarantee freedom of religion? Isn't it the Saudis' business how they run their society?

Personally, I have no problem saying that the way women are treated in Saudia Arabia, and many other countries is wrong. I don't care whether the reason given is religion, tradition, or just fear of women's liberation. Human beings deserve better.

I cannot change Saudi Arabia. But I can let western brands know that we're watching them. If expansion into wealthy but oppressive countries is more important to them than respect for women's rights, then that belief should be seen as part of their global brand.

If you want a Starbucks coffee, go ahead and order one. What you have in your hand is a beverage that stands for sex segregation and arrest of women who dare order one without their husband or brother present. If you have a Big Mac attack, remember that somewhere a single woman has had to hire a taxi driver to take her through the drive-through to get one, because to walk into the restaurant would put her at risk of being beaten and arrested by so-called morality police. Same with your Pizza Hut hot dog stuffed greasewheel, or your Double Down.

When you support a brand, you are making its values part of your own. That's the way branding and identity work. Would you like fries with that misogyny?

Famous photos defeminized for IKEA's Saudi market

Thanks to an overly culturally "sensitive" editor who photoshopped all adult women out of the Saudi version of their catalogue, the IKEA brand has taken quite a hit this week.

And the hits keep coming. The latest salvo is a Tumblr in which users share pictures in which iconinc women have been replaced by IKEA products:

Another example of how brands are in the hands of the masses these day. IKEA will no doubt recover, but their willingness to throw toss aside the brand's human rights "values," just to expand the business into an area that does not share them, is an albatross they will have to bear until they truly redeem themselves.

UPDATE: People have been asking me how IKEA could have handled this differently, without offending Saudi sensitivities about female modesty.

Are you listening, IKEA? This is a freebee:

For countries in which the portrayal of casually-dressed westerners is not the cultural norm, shoot your catalogues as furniture-only. This will incur a slightly higher photo shoot cost, but might have some significant savings in talent fees.

Add a disclaimer to the catalogue:

IKEA respects sensitivities towards modesty and western modes of dress in some cultures. However, we are a company that believes absolutely in sexual equality. For that reason, we have produced a catalogue for some regions that shows only product. Because we cannot, as an equal opportunity company, treat men and women differently.

Tip via Copyranter

Ikea apologizes for editing women out of its Saudi catalogue

Via Washington Post

The Washington Post reports that Ikea has put itself in an awkward PR situation by digitally deleting images of women from the Saudi Arabia version of its catalogue.

Ikea’s Saudi catalogue, which is also available online, looks the same as other editions of the publication, except for the absence of women. 

One picture shows a family apparently getting ready for bed, with a young boy brushing his teeth in the bathroom. However, a pajama-clad woman standing next to the boy is missing from the Saudi version. 

Another picture of a five women dining has been removed altogether in the Saudi edition.

Back home in Sweden this was such a big deal that the country's Equality Minister, Nyamko Sabuni, commented on it, telling AP, “For Ikea to remove an important part of Sweden’s image and an important part of its values in a country that more than any other needs to know about about Ikea’s principles and values — that’s completely wrong.”

Ikea has since apologized in a statement, saying "We should have reacted and realized that excluding women from the Saudi Arabian version of the catalogue is in conflict with the IKEA Group values." The group responsible for the catalogue added, "We are now reviewing our routines to safeguard a correct content presentation from a values point-of-view in the different versions of the IKEA Catalogue worldwide."

AP ads:

Women appear only infrequently in Saudi-run advertising, mostly on Saudi-owned TV channels that show women in long dresses, scarves covering their hair and long sleeves. In imported magazines, censors black out many parts of a woman's body including arms, legs and chest.

International marketers are often challenged with trying to fit in to regional values while still maintaining global brand values. It wasn't the first time someone called out a big brand for caving to local sensitivities, and it won't be the last. But I think Ikea at least did the right thing by apologizing and promising to make good.

If you want to see more, Copyranter has a good collection of "before and after" images.

In case you ever wondered what species went into Filet-O-Fish

This really unfortunate ad from Leo Burnett, Saudi Arabia, has the answer.

(According to Wikipedia, it's actually Pollock or Hoki.)

But I'll never be able to look at one of those things the same way again.

Via Ads of The World

FEMEN go after Saudi Arabia

FEMEN's latest protest targets the Saudi kingdom for prohibiting women from driving.

So of course they gave their signature topless protest a more modest apparel:

Press Release (via Google Translate):

"Today, the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia blocked the protest FEMEN-tuple. Thus, FEMEN expressed solidarity with the women of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, who will leave June 17 to protest against the prohibition for women to drive cars. Topless activists wearing head scarves unfurled banners from the car, "Women - machine men - Camels!" Women they rule! »,« Let's drive »," Wild morals ". At the end of the campaign activists pelted the embassy with whips that the official government of Saudi Arabia urges men to beat their women for trying to get behind the wheel.
The women's movement FEMEN consistently opposed the near-eastern male tyranny and the liberation of women requires the Muslim world. The motion calls on the entire civilized FEMEN democratic world to help Muslim women to leave the position of slavery, giving them organizational, financial and political support."

Video here