London Fire Brigade has decided to scrap a recruitment advert after it was criticised as “tasteless”.
The advert, which appeared in the national press and gay publications, used the headline: “Fancy pulling an older woman?”
In small print underneath it continued: “Out of a car, from a burning building or just out of danger?”
But the brigade pulled the advert after a complaint was received from the voluntary support organisation Networking Women in the Fire Service, reports London’s Evening Standard.
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Barbara Riddell, the London Fire Brigade’s director of resources, said in an e-mail to colleagues that the advert was designed to be attention-grabbing but had crossed the line between being provocative and tasteless.
The Fire Brigades Union said it had also lodged a complaint.
