By Rebecca Cullers
Click your way through Ikea's
regular catalog and its
Saudi catalog, and you will notice something odd:
They removed all the women
(though not the young girls) from the latter. In some cases it's clear
they were Photoshopped out, in other instances they simply have
replacement pictures. For example, there's one image of four women
sitting at a dining table where clearly someone said "Screw it" and just
reshot the table. The changes have caused a bit of a stir with
government officials in Sweden, as they seem to suggest Ikea doesn't
have much of a commitment to women's rights. Ikea apologized, saying,
"We should have reacted and realized that excluding women from the Saudi
Arabian version of the catalog is in conflict with the Ikea Group
values." Though Saudi Arabia is a country where women are expected to be
covered in public and are not allowed to drive, they do not prohibit
depictions of women in advertising, so it's not entirely clear why Ikea
removed them from the catalog in the first place. It's the second time
in a few weeks that Ikea has had to apologize for unfortunate deletions.
Two weeks ago it removed a photo of four people in balaclavas from its
Russian corporate website, just in case someone thought they supported
Russian band Pussy Riot, who just received a scorching sentence for
protesting Putin while wearing balaclavas. But this faux pas has
captured much more Internet time.
Check out this hilarious Tumblr, where images of women have been replaced with Ikea furniture.
Read more about this on Adfreak at:
http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/ikea-regrets-airbrushing-women-out-its-saudi-catalog-144140
