French jobseekers' website TrouveTonJob.co has landed in hot water after rolling out a bunch of ads that were deemed by users to be racist, sexist and fatphobic.
It was the activist group Pepite Sexiste that drew attention to a bizarre marketing campaign that the French website chose to promote its services. Among the "humorous" ads that the website rolled out was a call to use porn to learn English and a picture of a skinny guy carrying a plus-size woman on his shoulders, captioned "When you haven't properly prepared your interview".
Another joke was a picture of a black man's foot standing on a calendar on the month of March, with the caption reading "The first African man to set foot on Mars. The pride of a whole continent." It apparently referred to how "March" and "Mars" are both pronounced "Mars" in French.
Following a wave of critical responses from outraged users, the company issued a statement denying being racist, sexist or fatphobic.
"Trouvetonjob.co apologises to its agreeable audience if by one way or another, this post hurt the sensitivities of some people," the company said.
However, it did not help much.
"Their answer: 'humour'. The reality: racism, sexism and fatphobia," one of the users said.
Another one slammed the controversial marketing as "mediocre", arguing that its only purpose was to "create bad buzz".
"I am appalled by all these people who seek to defend them. Sit down and take a step back. This is a hiring site, it's supposed to be serious," one of the users asserted. "Not making immature jokes, even non-racist, sexist, fatphobic etc."