River Heads Pharmacy sexual innuendo post violating practitioner-patient boundaries

"Mark loves making the old ladies cream": Queensland pharmacy degrades elderly women in Facebook promo

A supporter alerted us to a Facebook post by River Heads Pharmacy in Queensland with concerns it was harmful to women.

The post dated May 8 features an image of a man dressed in a pharmacist lab coat, holding a spatula and an open jar containing a white substance, posed alongside an elderly woman. The caption reads: 'Mark loves making the old ladies cream 😊'.

The concerned supporter said that "this behaviour from anyone, let alone a health care provider is reprehensible."

We agreed.

More supporters and campaigners jumped onto the page to leave comments on the post:

River Heads Pharmacy defended the post as "humour", framing those objecting to it as "triggered" and attention seeking, and directing them to move along if they didn't like it. "Don't take life to (sic) serious," they said.

The reality is, the post wasn't funny. As our campaigners and supporters highlighted, it demonstrated a lack of respect for women, instead trading on harmful porn tropes and sexual innuendo which normalise the degradation of elderly women and abusive practitioner-client relationships to promote business. That's dangerous.

Our concerns sent to national bodies

We wrote to the Pharmacy Guild of Australia to express our objections to the post and to call on CEO Gerard Benedet to direct River Heads Pharmacy to remove it:

This post is in breach of the National Pharmacy Board (under AHPRA Code of Conduct) Principle 8: Professional behaviour which states: "Practitioners must display a standard of professional behaviour that warrants the trust and respect of the community. This includes practising ethically and honestly."

We believe the post promotes the idea that women and their bodies are always fair game to be s*xualised, objectified and mocked, at any age. This idea harms women by contributing to a culture in which we are seen as less than human, and in which violence against us is trivialised.

There is nothing humorous about this post, which is what River Heads Pharmacy suggested. In fact, we believe the depiction to be sinister: a practitioner viewing his vulnerable and trusting elderly, female clients as wanting and seeking s*xual favours from him, and he as willing to provide them.

We note the rising incidence of complaints about practitioner boundary violations reported to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency in recent years - by 223% in 2022-23 compared to the three years prior. Complaints included allegations of s*xual harassment and s*xual assault. River Heads Pharmacy's post is even more disturbing in light of this data.

We are calling on the Pharmacy Guild to instruct River Heads Pharmacy to remove this post and provide guidance to its members reiterating its value of respect for community members, including in their marketing, advertising and social media posts.

We also sent our concerns to the Pharmacy Board of Australia. That was over two weeks ago. We haven't heard back yet.

Ad Standards refuses to review ad

Meanwhile, after receiving a complaint, the Ad Standards Community Panel Chair refused to forward the post for Panel Review, stating it "related to an issue that has been considered on many occasions by the Panel which has found that it does not breach the advertising codes". Really? Exactly how many times has the Panel reviewed ads portraying male health care providers who "love making the old ladies cream"? Where are these Panel rulings? We couldn't find any on Ad Standards' website where they publish their decisions. We've asked Ad Standards these questions and are waiting for a response.

WIN! Pharmacist's post degrading elderly women GONE

As we were about to go to press and mobilise our supporters to tell River Heads Pharmacy to remove its degrading promo, the post disappeared. Earlier today our campaigners emailed the company highlighting the harmful nature of the post, urging them to get rid of it.

This is a win for all of us, especially women who depend on health care providers to administer care with respect - not turn them into the butts of degrading, sexual "jokes".

See also

Collective Shout WINS

Unpacking the Rape Culture Pyramid: How Everyday Sexism Fuels Male Violence