A popular meme titled 'distracted boyfriend' has been ruled sexist by the Swedish advertising watchdog, stating it stereotypes men and presents women as 'interchangeable items'.
The stock image meme features a man looking at another woman wearing red to the disgust of his assumed girlfriend.
After rising in popularity, it was used by Swedish internet company Bahnhof to advertise job vacancies on Facebook and Instagram.
But the Swedish Advertising Ombudsman this week ruled that Bahnhof's use of the image was "gender-discriminatory".
In their ruling, the ombudsman's committee states that the women in the photo were intended by Bahnhof to represent the current workplace and the advertiser's workplace.
It was also in the opinion of the committee that Bahnhof's target audience was familiar with the meme used.
"The committee finds that the woman in red, who is in focus in the image, through the man's appreciative reaction is produced as a sex object," the committee said.
This is reinforced by the fact that both the women in the image are "designated" as workplace representatives while the man is portrayed as "as an individual", according to the committee.
"The Board finds that the advertisement is gender-discriminatory in this regard and thus contravenes the first paragraph of Article 4 of the ICC Rules.
"The committee further finds that the preparation of the man - through the way he, while walking with his girlfriend - turns around looking at another woman - imparts a stereotype picture of men looking at women as being interchangeable in the same way as a change of workplace, which is undervaluing," the committee ruled.
The meme originated from a stock image filed by Spanish photographer Antonio Guillem in 2015.
First turned into a memr in 2017, it went on to become one of the most widely shared memes of the year and was crowned Meme of the Year at the Shorty Awards in April.
The Shorty Awards honour the best of social media.
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