Controversy surrounds a billboard in Douala advertising "sexism"

The company Biopharma has undertaken in recent weeks an extensive campaign to promote a new line of beauty creme in the city of Douala.

To better reach its target, billboards have been placed in some intersections in the city. But these billboards are not to the liking of the Cameroonian League for Consumers.

According to the Ouest Littoral newspaper of August 13, 2015, in a statement, the Lcc is "indignantly" against the display ad campaign of Hydra products.

The object of the wrath of the "consumer advocates" is none other than the photo of a young two-piece swimsuit girl on the billboard. According to Alphonse Ayissi Abena, regional president of the Cameroonian League of consumers in Littoral, "using women's bodies to sell products in such advertising has the effect of strengthening sexual and gender stereotypes against what women have been fighting for decades ".

Mr. Alphonse Ayissi Abena also stated that "our people are shocked because of this exhibitionism of women as dispossessed market value with all its intimacy. What also strikes is the disrespect of the fairer sex," he continues.

According to the Lcc, the company Biopharma should simply proceed with the withdrawal of the billboards because they constitute "a violation of Article 25 of Law No. 2006/018 of 29 December 2006 governing advertising in Cameroon”.