Parents attack 'sexist' shoe ads: 3,000 protest against posters which use blue text to describe tree-climbing boys and pink for girls who 'love comfort and style'

Boys roll in mud and climb trees, while girls prefer sitting quietly and playing with dolls.

Or at least that’s what adverts for Clarks shoes would have you believe – triggering an online backlash from parents who complain the firm is being ‘sexist and offensive’.

The shoe shop has been accused of gender stereotyping on its posters which suggest boys need hard-wearing shoes for running around, while girls are more concerned with looking pretty.

One of the adverts, which are displayed in store, proclaims in blue: ‘Because boys test their shoes to destruction, so do we.’

Another poster, in pink, says: ‘Because girls love comfort and style, we design both into our shoes.’

Last night the firm said it was ‘never our intention to cause offence’ as it faced a barrage of complaints on Twitter.

Emma Dixon, a lawyer from Islington, north London, and mother of two boys and a girl, launched an online petition calling for the removal of the adverts, which last night had been signed by more than 3,000 people.

She said: ‘I was horrified to find gender stereotyped notices above the boys’ and girls’ shoes.  ‘These offensive posters suggest boys are active while girls are passively pretty.

A spokesman for Clarks said: ‘The wording in these in-store marketing displays was chosen to reference qualities that our customers value in children’s shoes. It is never our intention to cause offence.

SOURCE

The ads would seem to be a pretty fair reference to normal sex differences.  But Leftists are not interested in normality  -- except in attempts to change it.