An advertising campaign criticised as sexist is being defended by the Auckland Nines rugby tournament's organisers.
A researcher says the tournament ads, which only depict women, are old-fashioned and sexist. Photo: Screenshot / Facebook
The campaign, on Facebook, uses pictures of young women to promote tickets for the tournament's designated singles zone at Eden Park.
Pani Farvid, a senior psychology lecturer at Auckland University of Technology, said the advertising was sexist and old-fashioned.
She was surprised there were no men featured in the ads, saying one would expect to see a mix of genders in a singles zone.
"It reminded me of just very archetypal, old-fashioned advertising where you have the woman kind of draped over the car.
"It's basically trying to entice men to the Nines by promoting this idea that there'll be lots of single, attractive women there."
But Auckland Nines general manager Trina Tamati said while the first two ads on Facebook featured solely women, other ads would be rolled out that featured men only, and men and women together.
"The campaign was created by females. It is created to attract both female and male sports fans and I think it's really important that we keep it neutral if we can, because half of our crowd are females."
Organisers had received mixed feedback about the idea of the singles zone, but had already sold more than a third of the tickets available in the zone, Ms Tamati said.
In a statement, the ratepayer-funded Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development agency said it was not aware of the campaign.
The agency has contributed $12 million in sponsorship and investment leverage to the Nines over a five-year period, but did not have oversight of, or responsibility for, the marketing of the tournament, it said.
