Gender Stereotypes Are Banned from Bank Advertisements

The Argentine Central Bank (the “BCRA,” after its acronym in Spanish) issued Communique “A” 7162 on November 12, 2020 mandating that financial institutions avoid practices or actions that reflect or promote stereotypical and hierarchical gender roles, androcentrism, sexist language, and media and/or symbolic violence against women and LGBTTIQ+ individuals.

Among other things, advertisements must avoid mansplaining, using the image of women as mere objects unrelated to the product being promoted or in association with stereotypical behavior, or reproducing homophobic, lesbophobic and transphobic messages.

This new regulation applies to how all individuals are treated, even when they are not users of financial services, and to all advertisements, regardless of the platform used to broadcast them.

In a press release, the BCRA stated that the initiative arose from the Office for the Promotion of Gender Policy, Safeguarding Respect and Workplace Coexistence, which noted that “certain advertisements spread messages and images that, directly or indirectly, reproduce violence, hierarchies and segregations on the basis of gender or sexuality” —and which the new regulation aims to curtail.