Ad "worse than bad taste" says trans group

Posted in: New Zealand Daily News
By GayNZ.com Daily News staff - 5th May 2010

Activist law project TransAdvocates is speaking out against an advertisement for a bank depicting a transgender person being assaulted.

It says the Raboplus ad, where a sexy young model knocks the elbow of a middle-aged transwoman and walks in, goes beyond satire and humour.

It's followed by the voiceover "your bank would be worried, wouldn't he?"

Kelly Ellis from TransAdvocates says the joke is not legitimised because the victim is depicted as a transgender woman.

TransAdvocates has complained about the ad and knows of at least one other complaint.

Ellis says it is worse than bad taste.

"The Advertising Standards Authority has a specific code for people in advertisements. This ad breaches every ground, including the use of 'sexual appeal' to sell an 'unrelated product' in the way it depicts the first woman in it."

Ellis says the bank is still running the ad on its website and urges viewers to 'watch, listen and enjoy' the spectacle.

"The exact message isn't easy to decipher," says Ellis, "but perhaps I'm a bit slow. It seems to say that assaulting, ridiculing and being callous to trans people is not just ok, it's hilarious. I don't understand how this ad can market a banking product."

TransAdvocates is an alliance of people who want to increase trans presence and influence through advocacy and lobbying. "If this is ad is the most commonly seen depiction of trans people on TV at the moment, then we all need to step up and challenge it," says Ellis.