Last week we told you about the controversy surrounding One Call Insurance and its use of glamour girl models for promotional purposes labelled “The One Call Girls” (see
article).
Now, the wife of the insurer’s chief has stepped into the row.
Carolyn Radford’s husband John owns One Call Insurance, as well as Mansfield Town FC where the girls appear carrying out promotional work during the home side’s matches. The use of the girls, wearing skin tight clothing and low-cut tops, has been labelled as “sexist” particularly because of the use of the name “One Call Girls” which a host of social media users have claimed metaphorically links them to call girls, or prostitutes.
However, Mrs Radford has hit back claiming that the name is just a “play on words” and has nothing to do with prostitution.
In an article in
The Doncaster Free Press, Mrs Radford claims that the company has “no connotations whatsoever to do with prostitution.”
“We’re not trying to demean women, we’ve never had this issue before and the girls have been doing incredible work,” she states in the publication. “They actually enjoy it and they say they get a little bit of confidence... they want to do it.”
She argued that many sports use promotional girls in a similar manner.
However, Lisa Clarke, from the
No More Page 3 campaign appears unimpressed stating that the wording was unlikely to be a coincidence.
“I refuse to think for one minute the board didn't think about the second meaning of that name [One Call Girls],” she said. “Prostitution, sex work, is a massive issue... it’s generally surrounded by poverty [and] by exploitation.”
Related stories:
Anger at One Call Insurance over sexism controversy
