Garden centre tells men to make wives 'feel special' with a clothesline

A garden centre has provoked a feminist backlash from customers after suggesting men made their wives "feel special this Christmas" by buying a rotary clothesline as a present. Hillier delivered a four page brochure promoting a range of festive gift ideas for the home and garden to 900,000 homes.

But the company, which has 14 stores, was inundated with complaints just hours later after the £44.99 clothesline was featured as a perfect gift for women. Equal rights groups have also condemned the chain, saying the advert is like something from the 1970s and promotes the idea that a woman's place is in the home.

The "Vento lightweight aluminium rotary clothesline" is pictured in a perfectly manicured garden with the headline: "Make her feel special with a clothesline this Christmas."



Managers at the garden centre said they have received about 100 complaints from customers and admitted the "joke" was ill advised.

Abi Moore, from anti-stereotyping group Pink Stinks, said: "This advert may have been acceptable in the 1970s but it not something we should still be seeing in the 21st century.

"It is promoting the old-fashioned nonsense that a woman's place is in the home while a man goes out to earn a living. If my husband bought me this for Christmas I certainly wouldn't feel special - I hope most men would be intelligent enough to realise this."