New National Party advert attacking Labour's KiwiBuild called out as 'sexist' and 'awkward'

February 14, 2019

A new advertisement by the National Party has been called out online as being sexist towards women.

The video depicts a man simply explaining Labour's KiwiBuild scheme missing targets, to a woman.

Some people have criticised the ad a "patronising" towards women, outdated and "embarrassingly awkward".

One Twitter user slammed the ad, describing it as: "Mansplaining, sexist symbolism & fear based marketing. Embarrassingly awkward."

Damien Grant and Shay Wright joined TVNZ1's Breakfast Club panel to discuss the controversial advert.

Another Twitter user wrote: "Cripes. This is so blatantly patronising I laughed out loud."

One Twitter user also suggested the theme of the ad was outdated, saying, "Hey @NZNationalParty it's not 1892. Women can vote now."

National’s Deputy Leader Paula Bennett defended the ad.

“It’s great. It uses a bit of humour to actually get the point across that this is a government that’s failing," she told reporters today. 

“It could have been a man, it could have been a woman. I don’t think it’s about gender”.

Commentator Damien Grant and Te Whare Hukahuka co-founder and speaker Shay Wright joined TVNZ1's Breakfast Club panel to discuss the ad, with Grant disagreeing with the criticism the ad's received.

He believed it was "fantastic" advertising - getting people talking about the issue behind the ad - Kiwibuild not meeting its targets.

Mr Grant also said his wife "loves it" when he explains things simply to her. "I have had decades perfecting my mansplaining technique."

ONN 1 News at 6 promo image

The term "mansplaining" is used to mean a man explaining something in a patronising way to a woman.

But Wright disagreed saying the ad was a classic, old school example of a man explaining something to women.

"What we're doing is calling it out and saying 'this is not okay anymore'."

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