Pakistan’s marketing and advertising industry is a fast-growing sector that blends creativity, commerce, and culture. From television commercials to digital influencer campaigns, it employs thousands of people; young, ambitious professionals chasing careers in a glamorous field. Yet beneath the polished veneer of brand shoots and agency boardrooms lies a troubling reality: harassment, in its many forms, is deeply embedded in this industry, often normalized, and rarely held to account. And while women bear the disproportionate burden, men are not exempt. This is a problem that cuts across gender and the industry must reckon with all of it.
Pakistani law provides a clear framework. In 2010, Parliament enacted the Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, defining harassment as any unwelcome sexual advance, request for sexual favors, verbal or written communication of a sexual nature, or sexually demeaning attitudes that interfere with work performance or create an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment. In 2022, an amendment broadened the definitions of both “workplace” and “harassment,” extending protections to informal workers, freelancers, trainees, artists, and performers categories that make up a significant portion of the advertising workforce.
In the context of marketing and advertising, harassment takes several forms: sexual harassment through unwanted contact or pressure; power harassment through bullying and coercion; gender based discrimination in promotions and decision making; online and cyber harassment targeting models and influencers; and harassment embedded in advertising content itself the objectification and sexualization of people in campaigns that normalizes harmful attitudes.
One of the most insidious dynamics in Pakistan’s advertising industry is the profiling of women based on their appearance, lifestyle, and personality. A woman who smokes, wears western clothes, or is outspoken and open-minded is not inviting harassment. She is not “asking for it.” She is not “easy.” Yet in the advertising world where these traits are common among creative professionals this stereotype is weaponized against women with devastating regularity.
Harassers frequently target women they believe will not complain or will not be believed. A woman who is friendly, socially confident, or dresses in a certain way is often perceived by both perpetrators and institutional gatekeepers as someone whose complaint can be discredited. This is not a cultural accident. It is a deliberate exploitation of patriarchal bias to protect powerful men and silence their victims. A woman’s lifestyle choices are not consent. Her wardrobe is not an invitation. Her confidence is not permission. Any organization that allows this logic to inform how it handles complaints is not progressive it is complicit.
Harassment in Pakistan’s advertising industry is not exclusively a women’s issue and acknowledging this is not a deflection. It is an important part of the full picture.
Research conducted across Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi found the prevalence of workplace harassment with significant psychological impacts including anxiety, stress, and depression among both women and men. The advertising industry, with its fluid social dynamics, blurred hierarchies, and culture of after-hours socializing, creates conditions where men too can be subjected to inappropriate behavior by superiors, clients, or colleagues.
Male harassment in creative industries can take multiple forms: sexual advances from those in positions of power, psychological bullying disguised as “tough feedback,” coercive demands tied to career advancement, and sustained belittling that chips away at professional confidence. Male victims tend to avoid making reports because they prioritize their male stereotypes and reputations a social pressure that leaves them as isolated as female victims, but without even the limited vocabulary and legal framework that exists for women.
Although workplace harassment is often seen through a gender-specific lens with women more frequently becoming victims this pervasive problem is not limited to any one group. In an industry that prides itself on breaking conventions, the silence around male harassment is a particularly stark contradiction. Men in advertising who have experienced harassment deserve the same right to be heard, believed, and protected.
Women already face a lack of safety and a pay gap at work, carrying the constant fear of losing their jobs if they choose to speak about harassment. The industry’s creative culture late nights, client entertainment, social events creates settings where boundaries are easily blurred and power differentials exploited, for everyone.
The content the industry produces compounds the problem. Pakistan’s advertising industry has historically depicted women in stereotypical and objectified roles, perpetuating gender inequality. Women are often sexualized and objectified in advertisements, reducing them to mere objects of desire. When this is the dominant narrative the industry produces, it is unsurprising that similar attitudes shape how people are treated within it.
Day-to-day harassment in agencies, PR firms, and brand teams goes largely unreported across genders. Harassment cases are frequently under reported due to fear of social stigma, and only a small fraction of victims take action against perpetrators. When complaints are raised internally, the accused are often protected on grounds of seniority, family status, or business value while the complainant is left isolated.
Freelancers and contractual workers the backbone of Pakistan’s advertising ecosystem remain especially vulnerable. Although the 2022 amendment has extended protections to informal workers, freelancers, and performers, whether this is being enforced in practice is another matter entirely.
As influencer marketing has grown rapidly in Pakistan, a new frontier of harassment has emerged. Women influencers in Pakistan are increasingly becoming targets of harassment, facing a torrent of abuse that threatens both their safety and freedom of expression. Male influencers and content creators face it too targeted campaigns, coordinated pile-ons, and reputational attacks that directly impact brand partnerships and earning capacity.
According to the Digital Rights Foundation’s 2023 Annual Report, their Cyber Harassment Helpline received 2,473 complaints that year, with 58.5% filed by women. The remaining complaints filed by men and others are a reminder that online harassment in the content and marketing space is not a single-gender problem. Yet conviction rates for cybercrime in Pakistan remain under 0.05% leaving virtually all victims, regardless of gender, without justice.
Agencies and marketing departments must adopt genuine zero-tolerance harassment policies that protect everyone women, men, freelancers, and junior staff alike. Legal reform must ensure the 2022 amendments are actually enforced. Digital protections must be strengthened. Advertising content standards must push back against objectification. And critically, the industry must reject the dangerous myth that a person’s appearance or lifestyle makes them a legitimate target.
Support systems like the Digital Rights Foundation’s Ab Aur Nahin! portal which connects survivors to a network of pro-bono lawyers across Pakistan need to be expanded and made accessible to all genders. Harassment in Pakistan’s marketing and advertising industry is a structural problem that affects everyone women most visibly, but men as well. A woman’s clothes, her cigarette, her confidence none of it is an invitation. A man’s silence about what he has experienced is not evidence that nothing happened. The industry that sells empowerment and progressiveness in its campaigns must finally start practicing both behind the scenes, and for everyone
