Phone advert condemned as sexist

Manila : The influential Catholic Church and women's rights groups have complained about a mobile phone advertisement published on March 3 saying it relegates women as commodities.

Several women's groups have signed a letter complaining about the advert which uses "a woman with her legs spread wide open" with a mobile phone "strategically placed between" the model's legs.

The letter protested the "deplorable use of a woman's body in advertisements that in effect reduce it to a mere commodity," Zenaida Rotea, executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Office on Women, said on the CBCP website.