Sexism in advertising is rife throughout the world but particularly blatant in Italy. Today, I took photos of the above three public advertisements which I’m pretty sure would spark outrage in Britain.

The first has a tanned woman in a silver bikini promoting a car battery centre – need your battery recharging sir? Come to the professionals.

The second advertises a car repair workshop with a leggy woman going down on a sports car (either that or she is the victim of a tragic accident!) .

The third announces the opening of a new cafe-bar and defines glamour in terms of a woman in a skimpy dress perched precariously on the edge of an oversized cup.

Large sections of the Italian public regard such gratuitous ‘sexy’ images as harmless fun and see nothing wrong in women’s bodies being used in this way. To me, this goes some way to explaining why Berlusconi can still count on a high level of support despite his morally and legally reprehensible behaviour.

The cultural climate is such that if women protest about such images they are likely to be labelled as prudes. I think it’s down to men to make it plain that far from being a turn-on, this type of publicity is actually a big turn-off.

A good place to start is to  make a point of refusing to buy or use the services being promoted .