Actions being taken on Sexualised Ads

It’s encouraging to see action finally being taken on sexualised ads in our industry.

The UK’s ASA has just banned ads from five mobile games for breaching guidelines, including ones featuring hyper-sexualised and stereotypical portrayals of women. This follows a string of similar cases, and it’s clear the industry is now under real scrutiny; who knows how long before the IAB enforces something even further?

I covered this issue in detail last year with Gamesforum, pointing out how this kind of advertising doesn’t just fail morally, it also fails commercially. It undermines trust in the product, the platform, and ultimately the industry, which reduces retention rates and other qualitative gaming metrics. These aren’t edge cases, they’re still far too common.

This ASA ruling is a much-needed first step, but we’ve got a long way to go. It’s not enough to quietly hope these ads disappear, we need to be vocal in calling them out and raising standards across the board. Because if we want to build a more inclusive, sustainable industry, we can’t ignore the way we present ourselves to the world.

Let’s not treat this like a win; let’s treat it like a turning point, a line in the sand that we can look back on and say this was the start of something big.

Shout out to all the strong women out there in our industry dealing with this, and putting a stop to it.