The first banned ad, for the Volkswagen e-Golf electric car, shows a male climber zipping up a tent on a cliff face, two male astronauts in zero gravity, and a male para-athlete completing a long jump, before ending on a shot of a woman sitting on a bench with a book, a takeaway coffee, and a pram. (A female climber is also visible very briefly in the first shot, but she is asleep.)
In the second banned ad, from food company Mondelez UK for Philadelphia, a brand of cream cheese, two fathers become distracted in a restaurant and place their babies on a food conveyer belt, only noticing their mistake once the infants have been carried away. At that point, one says “Let’s not tell Mum.” The ASA said that, while it was clear the ad was meant jokingly, the two dads were depicted as “hapless and inattentive” to the extent that it perpetuated the stereotype that fathers are poor at childcare.