Ad watchdog clears ‘offensive’ Meat & Livestock Australia ad of being ‘racist’ and ‘homophobic’
The advertising watchdog has cleared Meat & Livestock Australia’s political musical Summer Lamb campaign of vilifying a person or being discriminatory.
MLA’s Summer Lamb campaign, which turned the wars between Australia’s left and right into a ‘satirical’ West Side Story-style musical, was labelled in a complaint as “offensive”, “outdated, racist” and “homophobic”.
“This ad is offensive to literally anyone who has ever held any point of view ever. It’s humour is outdated, racist, homophobic – I could go on. It seems to think it’s satire but it’s just genuinely offensive. In such a climate as the one we have now poking fun at political correctness is absolutely so on the nose I can’t believe it was allowed at all,” a complaint posted to Ad Standards said.
Meat & Livestock Australia said the complaints should be dismissed, arguing the ad is “a satirical take on the Broadway classic, West Side Story”.
“The overriding message of the advertisement is one of inclusiveness, regardless of political belief or any other social values.
“There is nothing in the advertisement that reveals inequity, bigotry, intolerance towards or unfair treatment of any such group,” the advertiser said in response to the complaint.
The Ad Standards panel said there wasn’t anything in the ad which referred to a particular race or ethnicity.
“At no point was any one person in the advertisement singled out or treated in a manner which was discriminatory or vilifying on the basis of race or ethnicity,” the panel said.
Dismissing the complaint and clearing the ad, the Ad Standards panel agreed the ad treated both groups equally and didn’t discriminate against any particular person or group.
The brand frequently finds itself responding to ad complaints.
Last year’s religious-themed backyard barbecue campaign was initially cleared by the watchdog, despite receiving over 200 complaints and Christian, Hindu, Buddhist and Jewish leaders all calling for the ad to be banned. The initial decision was undone by an independent reviewer, however, who found the ad gave “inadequate consideration to how seriously some Australians take their religious views”. The independent review said the Ads Standards Board’s initial decision had “substantial flaws”.
MLA’s 2016 spring campaign was also accused of being racist towards white people, while its Australia Day campaign from the same year was given the all-clear, despite drawing more than 600 complaints. The scene in question showed commandos smashing their way into a vegan’s home before using a flamethrower to torch his furniture.
All of the controversial campaigns were created by The Monkeys.
Late last year MLA’s group marketing manager Andew Howie jumped ship and joined Westpac as head of advertising.
I find it interesting, that an industry that claims to being socially progressive and inclusive, still reverts to out-dated stereotypes when portraying gays in advertising. Even ANZ’s much-lauded GayTM’s campaign, despite the cover of Mardi Gras, seems hell-bent on perpetuating the myth that all gay men fit somewhere between Liberace and Dick Emery when the truth is 99% of the gay community want nothing more than to lead normal, happy lives, doing normal jobs, building normal loving relationships and live in the same communities as you and I.
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For me the ad wasn’t too offensive, just deeply uncomfortable and frankly not very inspiring work, until the line “there’s no right or wrong”.
There is enough scientific evidence of global warming to say that denying climate change is demonstrably wrong. And although right now society sees opposition to marriage equality/LGBTIQA+ rights and respect as a matter of political opinion it will go down in history similarly to opposing interracial marriage or women’s rights.
It’s maybe not offensive enough to need the ad watchdog to step in but overall it is an uncomfortable and uninteresting ad to watch, much like the religious-themed campaign last year. It feels like an attempt at controversy without much substance.
I look forward to seeing better work from them in future.
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I don’t find it offensive.
I merely wanted to die of cringe.
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Whichever way you look at it, i’s a crap ad.
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The only thing I want to know if it was the ‘lefties’ or the ‘righties’ that complained about it.
Although TBH I think we already know the answer.
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