EU AND SEX IN ADVERTISING

Some EU commissioners want to set guidelines for advertising, especially in the area of [the] portrayal of female sexuality, according to this article in the Rheinischer Merkur. American visitors to Europe are sometimes shocked by the extensive use of nudity in advertising (for an example, see papascott's post here), but it seems to me that American ads differ not so much in the use of sex but only in the amount of skin they show.

See EU Commissioner for employment and social affairs Anna Diamantopoulou's defense of the EU's initial discussion of sexist advertising (and other issues) here.

I am generally sympathetic with efforts to criticize the advertising industry (see, for example, adbusters), although I have to admit that government regulation makes me nervous. The alternative, though -- allowing advertisers to engage in a moral race to the bottom in order to grab the attention of increasingly distracted and cynical consumers -- doesn't seem so great to me, either. First Amendment concerns for commercial speech are also often overblown: it seems to me odd to argue that self-interested purveyors of product images should be given the same kinds of protection as people who advance political ideas and seek the attention of the voting public. (And it's worth noting that free speech issues are also at the forefront of the debate in Europe, even if they get cast in terms different from 1st A jurisprudence in the states.)