Swedish Court Misunderstands Memes
https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2018/10/swedish-court-misunderstands-memes-guest-blog-post.htm [blog.ericgoldman.org]
2018-10-25 22:40
But a recent decision by Sweden’s Advertising Ombudsman (RO), a “self-regulatory advertising watchdog,” attacked the Distracted Boyfriend meme not for its copyrighted status but for something else entirely: sexism. The meme at the time was not being used as a meme, but rather as an advertisement. Seeking applicants for open positions, Bahnhof, a Swedish ISP, used the Distracted Boyfriend meme, casting the girlfriend as “your current workplace” and the woman who catches the boyfriend’s attention as a new job at Bahnhof.