Brussels - European lawmakers are calling on advertisers to stop reinforcing gender stereotypes by constantly portraying women cleaning the kitchen and men polishing their cars.

A non-legally binding report to this effect was adopted in the European Parliament on Wednesday with 504 votes in favour, 110 against and 22 abstentions.

"MEPs call on the EU institutions and member states to develop awareness actions against sexist insults or degrading images of women and men in advertising and marketing," lawmakers said in a statement.

Left-wing Swedish MEP Eva-Britt Svensson, who drafted the report, said that such gender stereotyping by advertisers was particularly worrying since not everybody realizes how much they are influenced by such adverts.

"When women and men are portrayed in a stereotypical way the consequence may be that it becomes difficult in other contexts to see women and men's resources and abilities in areas other than those of the traditional gender roles," Svensson said.

"In the same way young, girls and boys are influenced in their choices of education and career," the lawmaker added.

While welcoming the report, MEPs rejected similar calls for advertisers to stop using extremely thin women as role models and to use a "more realistic range of body images" instead. (dpa)