‘Slut Mix’ for horses renamed online after complaint

horses playing in the field

(Image credit: Lucy Merrell)

A website has renamed the product “Slut Mix” after a complaint to the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) was upheld — but the same product and description remain on other sites.

The product description stated that “Slut Mix does attract a fair bit of attention, not least because of the name! However, it’s a serious product that… really can work. If your mare is constantly in and out of season, aggressive and temperamental then this product has proved to be highly successful in easing the problem”.

“However, the term ‘slut’ was a well-known negative stereotype of women and was commonly used to refer to women who had or were perceived to have many sexual partners, in a derogatory way that passed judgment on those behaviours,” the ASA stated. “We considered that, even in the context of an ad for horse supplements, consumers were likely to consider the word ‘slut’ to be highly offensive, derogatory towards women and sexist. For those reasons, we concluded that the ad, which included an offensive gender stereotype, was likely to cause serious offence.”

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Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.

‘Slut Mix’ for horses renamed online after complaint

The complainant who, the ASA said, “believed the ad, especially the name of the product, was sexist and perpetuated negative stereotypes of women, challenged whether it was offensive”.

LeMieux Ltd said it was a third-party stockist of the product, which was named by its manufacturer. The company told the ASA it did not advertise the product beyond its listing on the website, and asked the manufacturer to comment on the complaint.

In upholding the complaint, the ASA noted that customers would know the product was for horses.

The ASA ruled that the ad must not appear again in its current form, adding: “We told LeMieux Ltd to ensure that their future ads did not contain anything that was likely to cause serious or widespread offence, including the use of offensive gender stereotypes.”

A LeMieux spokesman told H&H: “We are a third-party stockist of this product and have renamed it on our website to Mare Mix in recognition of the negative connotations associated with the original product name.”

The product is still on sale elsewhere, still named Slut Mix and with the original description. Manufacturer Herbal Wise declined to comment when approached by H&H.

“We encourage anyone with concerns about any ads they’ve seen to get in touch,” the spokesman said.

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