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Nothing on their twitter apologising. Nothing on their web site apologising. Christmas ads on their YouTube channel – but 5 are now marked as private – could just be that they’ve been uploaded but not yet released.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL62A123D2B2293E4B
They’re owned by eircom group, but if you don’t like their attitude best to write and tell them to knock it off. They really should come out publically and apologise for this, as it’s clear transphobia. Not funny at all.
I see absolutely nothing to apologise for except possibly for making a really crap ad….
Well, it’s offensive, and the ASA clearly recognised that. It was exceptionally unwise. I’m pretty sure you could make an ad featuring a transgender person which would not be degrading or stereotypical.
Replace that trans lady with a black lady and you’ll see the problem.
Ignore the transphobic troll. He’s just trying to misdirect the discussion……again.
I’m so glad the complaints were taken seriously. That add is one of the most transphobic things I’ve ever seen.
Have you never been to Panto?
The trans women I know take more care of their appearance than the actor in this advert. The person is no more a trans than is Dame Edna. Slapping on some rouge and a skirt does not a woman make. I can’t believe people spent the court’s time with this. People are too easily offended these days! Having said that, I do have simpathy for the stuggles that trans people go though, I just don’t know if this court case did their cause any good.
If taken in context this looked like a drag bar and the guy was a drag queen, so I dont see anything to get steamed up about. At the moment it seems to me some of us are getting pretty thin skinned, over things that should be taken with a pinch of salt or a laugh. There are gay and trans people being killed all over the world, perhaps we should put our efforts into stopping that, not moaning about a crap advert. If we cant laugh at ourselves we are doomed. lol !
Swap the trans deviant for a hetero normal and nobody would bat an eyelid. The GLBT ‘community’ scrutinize all media in order to make theselves victims where no victimization is intended.
They are professional complainers and actually thrive on their invented and imagined victimization.
It is transphobic. It is telling people not to go to these bars.
In short it is “ha, ha, ha transsexual”.
Forgive me if I’m not entirely up to speed with this, but I thought drag artists were a very small and specific slice of the whole trans spectrum, and the whole point of their performance was to obviously and knowingly play with stereotypical gender norms? Isn’t drag more a kind of ironic pantomime entertainment (often involving a healthy dose of playing with straight men’s fears and prejudices for comic effect), and not really a mainstream trans identity or lifestyle?
Surely, then, it’s just as offensive to assume that this depiction of what is clearly a drag performer (obvious from the context) is meant to stand for all trans people of every stripe?
Perhaps one could argue that drag performers are the only obviously trans people the media ever shows, and there should be a broader representation (not always easy, given that large numbers of trans people are indistinguishable from cis people), but it is unfair to pick on one advert when the problem is an underlying cultural one.
Drags are not trans people. A drag wears clothing of the opposite gender either for work, prostiution or personal pleasure. They do not identify as being the gender they portray. A trans person, on the other hand, intifies with a gender other than what there genitals have determined for them. They often have to go through very difficult transition of gender to correct this. Along the way, they generally have significant loses which might include: family, friendships, employment and social standing. They are very brave. So when someone who have no investment in the matter decides to throw on a wig and get their feeling hurt when someone laughs at them–what were they expecting?
I rather thought “trans” included “transvestite” as well as just “transsexual”, and so drag performers did come under that umbrella? As far as I’m aware that’s why we tend to just use the prefix “trans”. But if the usage has indeed shifted such that it only includes transsexuals who identify all the time with a particular gender that they were not born with then fair enough.
That is my understanding. Transvestites are ofter hetrosexual men besides.
The ad is probably insensitive. I am pretty clear on the difference between drag and trans. Surely it’s ok to do comedy about drag. What kind of bar was that? A drag bar or a transgender bar? Bit of a minefield.
The implication is that the person is easy, sluttish, loose morals, because as soon as one leaves they’re angling for another. Drag is generally only used by stage acts, and they usually perform an act, but this one is smooching with a straight guy (assumed). If it’s meant to be a transsexual then the beard and heavy make-up simply exaggerates their male characteristics and ridicules their abilities.
Take your pick of which of these, both are offensive. It’s an inappropriate advert, whoever it intends to mock. Be good for someone to make one mocking the company that made this, how their signal strength is weak, and trying to force a Viagra pill in to the phone, in order to make it work properly, then giving up, showing poor customer service, an uncaring attitude from the company etc. I wonder if they would figure out that it’s not nice having the piss taken out of you. There are lots of great adverts featuring gay people, but this is definitely not one of them.
No, there are bars where people go just to drag up, or be around those who have, without any intention of performing an act for money. It’s a bit like dressing up at a sci-fi convention – some people just like dressing up.
Ahhh! I must have led a very sheltered life :D
Does the Rocky Horor Picture Show not play anymore then?
VP is right. Go to Madame JoJo’s in Soho and you’ll see lots of drag on AND off the stage. I think that the fact that the character in the ad was so fancily dressed but had stubble proves he was drag and not trans. I’ve seen drag queens with handlebar mustaches at Pride.
As I pointed out, it would have been offensive either way, because the person immediately gave the eye to another, implying a stereotype of simply up for sex.
Worth reading;
http://www.teni.ie/news-post.aspx?contentid=647
and
http://www.teni.ie/news-post.aspx?contentid=749
In the case of the stubble and excessive eye mark-up, that does not point to this definitely being drag, but the features may have been explicitly exaggerated to imply that a transsexual man can never adequately pass for a women. Paddy Power ran similarly insulting ads, which were also banned.
In 2013, I hope meteor’s profits plunge as swiftly to the ground as their namesake.