A French court has ruled in favour of a campaign depicting a woman tied to train tracks.
The posters, which were placed around the French town of Béziers last December, were advertising a push to get high-speed trains (TGV) built in the region.
Considered graphic and abusive towards women, the posters were accompanied by the tagline, ‘With the TGV she would have suffered less!’.
Criticism of the campaign was swift, with many claiming the images promoted and mocked gender-based violence.
https://twitter.com/RobertMenardFR/status/940132620121313280
According to The Guardian, the campaign came just months after Emilie Hallouin was killed by her partner in northern France after being tied to TGV tracks.
Slamming the far-right mayor of Béziers, Robert Ménard, French senator Laurence Rossignol called the posters “despicable”.
“The despicable Robert Ménard has killed her a second time.”
In response, Ménard tweeted: “The outrageous and paranoid reactions to our poster speak volumes about the moral order that plagues the country.”
Despite complaints, the administrative court in Montpellier called the posters “a doubtful and provocative humour”.
Adding the posters do not “promote violence against women … and do not target any type of person in particular”.
“These posters are not an attack on human dignity and do not constitute a form of harassment with regard to those of a female sex,” the court found.
