Objectification Never Ends: Korean Milk Giant Compares Women To Cows In Withdrawn Ad

South Korea's largest dairy issued an apology after publishing an ad comparing women to cows that sparked a furore on social media. The ad put out last month on Seoul Milk's official online channels was flagged by netizens claiming it peddled blatantly sexist ideas and the company withdrew it this month. "We sincerely apologise to everyone who may have felt uncomfortable due to the milk advertisement video," the company said in a statement.

The now-deleted ad, clips of which are still circulating on the internet, shows a male photographer creeping up to an open field where multiple women dressed in white are stretching, drinking water, meditating... basically connecting with nature it seems. A voiceover in Korean tells us they are "living peacefully in a pleasant environment."

As soon as the man lifts his camera to take a shot, he accidentally steps on a branch and the women, snapping out of their meditative state,

Seoul Milk ad shows man discovering "pristine" yoga women, he gets caught, they transform into cows.

Ad criticised for comparing women to cows, and the secret filming of women reminiscent of illegal molka spycam crime.

Ad now offline.pic.twitter.com/74g7jyFKgB

Seoul Milk said following the controversy that they did not really intend to show women as cows. They were only implying that their products' roots are purely organic.

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Content being consumed today cannot afford to be sexist because if they do, they will be called out. Accountability, the giving and taking of it, is one of the biggest boons that comes simultaneous to social media's endless drawbacks.

Earlier today, even a major Indian publication had to assume responsibility and apologise for the lack of gender diversity at a banking conclave they hosted. "We should have dug in our heels and worked harder," a letter from editor-in-chief Sruthijith KK said.

Sometimes backlash has been hyperbolic - as for ads like Tanishq, Fem, Sabyasachi, Fabindia this year - and ventured dangerously into the territory of religion-fuelled frenzy. But it has only proved that the ad industry cannot escape culpability when they propagate an idea, because it is being propagated to thousands nationally and even globally.

Ads hold status as vehicles of change-making, given their power to tell stories and sell ideas. So they must choose, and choose consciously, what it is that they want to advocate: empowerment or objectification?

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Even if Seoul Milk intended to show what they claim they did, does their visual representation not encourage the narrative of objectification of the female body that has long plagued women? Why do we even need maybe-possibly ads that don't have clear intentions and can be interpreted in mischievous ways to suit agendas?

A more disturbing theme in the ad is that of what South Korea calls 'molka', in which secret hidden cameras are used for voyeuristic purposes, notably for spying on women. Frankly, it makes the ad creepier than it already is and appears to validate sexist ideas of snooping on unsuspecting women.

In a world where women's safety is already seriously jeopardised, we don't need more of all that. Brands would do well to take note.

Views expressed are the author's own.