Ad Standards bursts Chatime’s bubble over ‘girl math’ advertisement

Ad Standards has upheld a complaint against beverage retailer Chatime, finding a recent email advertisement that utilised “girl math” as discriminatory against women.

The advertisement ran back in January and promoted a 50% discount with the tagline “According to girl math, that is basically free”.

A Chatime loyalty program member subsequently complained to Ad Standards, expressing concern over the content due to seemingly demeaning women’s mathematical and financial capabilities.

“This ad was emailed to me as part of my loyalty program. I am happy to receive emails from this company but the casual sexism is offensive. I have included a screenshot below but the essence is that girls cannot do maths,” the complaint said.

For those who are chronically online, they may recognise Chatime’s use of the term “girl math” from a social media trend from 2023. The meme, which gained popularity on TikTok, is used to humorously exaggerate how some women might justify purchases.

“The Panel noted that ‘girl math’ is used as a humorous way to rationalise seemingly intricate and often ridiculous ways women may try to justify to themselves an extravagant or unnecessary expense. For example, in the context of ‘girl math’ a discount on a purchase is seen as ‘extra’ or ‘free’ money,” the report said.

Ad Standards’ Community Panel reviewed the complaint under Section 2.1 of the AANA Code of Ethics, which discourages advertising that discriminates or vilifies individuals based on attributes including gender.

Despite the trend’s popularity on social media, the panel concluded that the ad’s framing suggests women are inherently poor at handling money and understanding basic math. It also pointed out that the advertisement ran roughly five months after the meme became popular on social media.

“Despite the attempt at humour and social media relevance, the advertisement does treat women unfairly and less favourably and does incite contempt and ridicule of women by promoting a negative stereotype that women, and only women, are bad with money or not smart enough to understand their purchasing decisions,” the report said.

Chatime did not submit a response to the complaint and at the time of writing has not responded to Ad Standard’s decision. Ad Standards has stated it will continue to engage with relevant authorities to address this non-compliance issue.

SmartCompany has contacted Chatime for comment.