Modified Food Starch

Sexist Internet Ad Comparing Women to Instant Ramen Banned in U.K.

An Internet ad for the Unilever-owned ramen brand Pot Noodle was banned for comparing women to the cheap, dehydrated snack. The gist of it, which can still be seen here, was featured on the company’s Facebook page and juxtaposed a photo of a woman in a red bikini alongside a cup of Pot Noodle’s piri piri flavor. “Which one gets you hotter?” a voice-over asked suggestively, and, well, you get the picture.

The U.K. Advertising Standards Authority swooped in to declare the “presentation of the woman in a sexual pose and the blatant comparison with the food product was crass and degrading,” so the company took it down. But Pot Noodle is somewhat of an infamous wellspring of puerile material.

Another ad tied into the brand's current tagline, "Peel off the top of a hottie," spurred a debate about consent. In this one, a municipal-bus rider chokes down spicy noodles and gets into some not-so-cute foreplay with a fantasized pole dancer; the ad was deemed acceptable because the woman seemed to have removed her top "voluntarily."

This isn’t the first time Pot Noodle commercials have sought to cater to repressed English eaters. Before it was a hottie, the ramen brand called itself “the slag of all snacks.”

Pot Noodle advert that compared spicy snack to a scantily clad woman is banned [DailyMail]

Sexist Internet Ad Comparing Women to Instant Ramen Banned in U.K.