TfL advert exhibiting black man and his white pal harassing white lady on bus is banned after only one criticism… for ‘reinforcing destructive racial stereotypes’ 

A Transport for London advert showing a black man and his white friend harassing a white girl on a bus has been banned for ‘reinforcing negative racial stereotypes’.

The Facebook advert was pulled after just one complaint from a viewer, who said it was irresponsible, harmful and offensive due to how it portrayed black teenage boys. 

The short clip showed a black male verbally harassing a young girl. He was accompanied by a white male friend, who sat down close to the victim ‘boxing her in’.

The advert was released as part of TfL’s new ‘Act Like a Friend’ campaign that encourages people to intervene safely if they witness sexual harassment or hate crime on the network. 

TfL told the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that both characters intimidated the victim and displayed offensive behaviour.

The advert was one of three made for social media which had been cut from a two-minute ‘Act Like a Friend’ film.

The two other cut-downs featured a white male committing a hate crime against a black woman and a white male committing a hate crime against another white male.

TfL said that a typical member of the Facebook audience would have been served any combination of the campaign adverts three times.

The advert showed a black male verbally harassing a young girl accompanied by a white male friend, who sat down close to the victim ‘boxing her in’

The advert was one of three made for social media which had been cut from a two-minute ‘Act Like a Friend’ film

TfL told the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that both characters intimidated the victim and displayed offensive behaviour

The ASA ruled that the advert must not appear again in the form complained about 

It also estimated that the probability of a person seeing only the cut-down that was the subject of the complaint to be around 2 per cent.

To ensure they were representative of London’s population across all of their campaigns, TfL said they used a bespoke casting diversity tracker. 

The ASA said it was possible to see the advert in isolation.

ASA said: ‘We understood there was a negative racial stereotype based on the association between black males, including teenagers, and threatening behaviour. We assessed whether the advert reinforced that stereotype.

‘The ad showed a black teenage boy verbally harassing a white girl. While the white male friend was shown in the ad and the two-minute film, the ad did not show him as jointly intimidating the victim. 

‘The only aggressor in the ad was the black teenage boy.

‘Although we understood that TfL had intended to present a range of diversity and scenarios across their campaign, we considered the ad, when seen in isolation, had the effect of perpetuating a negative racial stereotype about black men as perpetrators of threatening behaviour.

‘On that basis, we concluded that the ad featured a harmful stereotype, was irresponsible and likely to cause serious offence.’

The ASA ruled that the advert must not appear again in the form complained about, adding: ‘We told TfL to ensure that future ads were socially responsible. We also told them to avoid perpetuating harmful stereotypes and causing serious offence on the grounds of race.’

A TfL spokeswoman said: ‘Our aim is to ensure that our advertising reflects London’s diverse population and does not perpetuate any stereotypes, just as we ensure that our services are as fair, accessible and inclusive as possible.

‘We’re sorry that this social media advert – a shortened version of the full two-minute advert that includes a diverse range of ethnicities – falls below our usual high standards when viewed in isolation.

‘While very few people will have seen this shortened advert in isolation, we are committed to upholding the ASA’s standards for all of our campaigns and are no longer using this shortened advert in our ongoing campaign to encourage people to support other passengers targeted by hate crime, sexual offences and harassment on our transport network.’