Emissions/Kilian Doyle: The poster shows a sultry woman in a white bra, her ample bosom the focus of attention. Underneath is written: "The other way to a man's heart is down the M6 and off at Junction 4."
It's an ad for the Birmingham International Motor Show, and it has the British transport minister, who also happens to be the Minister for Women, up in proverbial arms. It's "sexist", "pathetic" and "old-fashioned rubbish", according to Patricia Hewitt. "We all know that sex sells, but haven't we got past 'boys with toys'?" she asked.
On first glance, one would tend to agree with her. But why was she so surprised?
It's practically an a priori truth that ads for car shows are going to be somewhat risqué.
You may as well complain about war as being "a touch too violent", or Ray Burke for being "a bit shifty".
The secret of advertising, after all, is knowing your market and hitting the spot. Did the minister not look around her at the show?
I'd bet your house on the crowd being made up of 95 per cent men, with the only women present either those wearing comfortable shoes and "Official" laminates round their necks or the babes draped across bonnets with mere string bikinis to protect their dignity. Get over it, lady.
That would have been the initial response from reactionary ol' me. But then, as ever, there's more to it.
It emerges that the offending ad was designed by a woman to appear in women's magazines, primarily for the purpose of attracting more women along to motor shows. The irony is that it's actually taking the complete mickey out of men and their inherent boorishness and small-mindedness, the exact traits that irked our precious minister so.
But then the British establishment was never a great one for the irony, was it?
Hewitt complains that the poster reinforces old clichés, "rather than presenting a modern image". Surely the fact that it's using the very clichés that anger her, to subvert the sexism of the past can't be lost on her? Can it?
The whole point, which should please Hewitt, is to get more women involved in the motor industry, which even the most Neanderthal motor company or advertising agency fat cat knows makes sense.
Even if only (from a purely commercial viewpoint) because women buy nearly half the cars and actually decide for their menfolk in 80 per cent of the other cases (Whether the man in question knows this is happening or not is another matter entirely.)
Even if the add is sexist, who is it sexist against?
Is it not anti-men? But do you think men care? No, they're too busy looking at the cleavage, reinforcing the irony and making it an even more potent campaign. So everyone's happy.
Anyway, I'm all for more female-designed cars. The things might even start to make sense. I have a real issue with blokes driving around in six litre sports cars that can hit 180 mph while guzzling eight litres of petrol per mile in the process. Selfishness personified. They're obviously not planning on having children, or they might consider the effect of their ego-extensions on the future. What's the point in such a machine, other than to satisfy some deep-rooted inadequacy issues or other psychological disfunction in the owners?
Or do they all secretly spend their holidays tearing up autobahns or disused airstrips? No woman would build such a machine.
One final point. Tony Blair, who appointed Hewitt as minister for women, last week dismissed backbench proposals for a minister for men as ridiculous.
Did I say the British government don't appreciate irony? I stand (politically) corrected.