Uber France's 'Incredibly Hot Chick' Promotion Is Sexist and Destructive
Using an attractive woman to promote a product is an age-old advertising tactic that is employed time and time again. The strategy obviously works — otherwise the modeling industry wouldn’t be as lucrative as it is — so it’s no wonder why good-looking women front so many campaigns. But sometimes the scheme to take advantage of a woman’s body for profit can backfire, as was the case with Uber in France.
The popular car service is receiving criticism for a promotion involving “only the prettiest girl” drivers. In collaboration with a company called Avions de Chasse, which translates to “fighter jets” (a colloquial term that means an “incredibly hot chick”), the service offered men (presumably) the opportunity to become the “luckiest co-pilot of Lyon” by riding shotgun with an amateur female model. According to the Avions de Chasse CEO, the package existed only during daytime hours and rides were limited to 20 minutes in order to protect the models’ safety.
Following negative reaction on social media, Uber “sincerely apologized” to anyone who might have been offended and ”decided to cancel the operation immediately, not having clearly assessed the situation,” according a statement given to the Huffington Post. But while the company reacted and retracted, this type of marketing gimmick is just an extreme example of the more subtle ways that TV and print advertising profit from pretty faces.
What makes this particular instance stand out is that it’s yet another reinforcement that women are objects to be desired, it underplays women’s aptitude in the workplace, and it emphasizes the belief that a woman’s value in society is directly correlated with physical appearance, Jennifer Wessel, an organizational psychologist, tells Yahoo Style.
"When women feel that they’re only being valued for their looks it can hurt their self-esteem, self-efficacy, and ability to perform in the workplace," the assistant professor at the University of Maryland at College Park says. "When a job that needs a certain level of competence starts valuing attractiveness, I think, the problem could be that women then are in this bind that they’re supposed to be attractive but not too attractive, sexual but not too sexual. It’s another extension of the fact that women have all of these expectations put on them.”
Interestingly, if this case were in the U.S., it could be seen as a form of illegal discrimination for Uber to hire attractive female drivers based on looks — but attractiveness not being a job requirement for male drivers as well, Stefanie Johnson, an assistant professor at University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business, tells Yahoo Style. On the other hand, if Uber hires only female drivers it would create reverse discrimination against men.
