‘Have your pick of girls’ banner slammed online

Source:Global Times Published: 2020/1/21 17:56:53

A promotional banner for an educational and training institute in Central China's Hubei Province was slammed as "pulp" for exaggerating the benefits of being a civil servant, saying "the country will be ruled by you and all good girls will be yours to choose from." Screenshot from Sina Weibo

A promotional banner for an educational and training institute in Central China's Hubei Province was slammed as "pulp" on Monday for exaggerating the benefits of being a civil servant, saying "the country will be ruled by you and all good girls will be yours to choose from."

"It is just a promotional slogan, which means everything will be fine if you are enrolled as a civil servant after receiving training in our institution," a staffer with the company, called Huatu, told the Beijing News in a telephone interview. 

"Most people who sit the civil servant exams are young graduates. We want our slogan to be novel and attractive to those people," said the staffer. 

The local government of Yingshan county of Huanggang in Hubei Province told media on Monday that they have required Huatu to withdraw all of the controversial banners. It is not known if the banners were later withdrawn.

The banner sparked widespread controversy on social media, drawing more than 5.4 million views in 24 hours. In addition to the criticism, some netizens said that for some students from underdeveloped regions in China, the banner is telling the reality of the situation. 

"I feel bad that the slogan objectifies females. Women should not be the measure of men," said a Net user on Sina Weibo which received more than 100 thumbs up. 

"What a distorted value they are promoting! Being a civil servant is never a shortcut for enjoying life. People in those posts must devote themselves to the country and stay loyal to the people," said another. 

More than 1.43 million people passed the application process for China's national public servant exam in 2019 and competed for 24,000 posts, chinanews.com reported.  

Global Times

Posted in: SOCIETY

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