Sultana Bran’s camp goldfish cleared of vilifying the gay community
The Advertising Standards Bureau has cleared Kellogg’s Sultana Bran of denigrating gay men in an ad featuring a camp but forgetful goldfish.
The Sultana Bran ad is set at the breakfast table with a father and daughter eating the cereal. The daughter asks her father if goldfish actually have a three-second memory. The ad then cuts to the goldfish swimming around the bowl stating with increasing shock, “Sultana Bran’s got more fibre than two slices of wholemeal toast”.
The ASB provided examples of the complaints, with a large focus on the denigrating nature of the “stereotypical” camp voice.
“By utilising the camp voice and tones the advert and advertisers have perpetuated the stereotypical characteristics of gay males that have been criticised over the last decade…and contributing to the denigration of the LGBTIQ community and in particular towards gay men,” an example complaint said.
Kellogg’s argued the fish was gender neutral and was not sexualised in any way.
“The purpose of the advertisement is to highlight the fibre content of the product in a playful and humorous way. The consumer insight underlying the advertisement is that consumers are looking for ways to increase fibre intakes in their diets…
“The goldfish was not depicted, nor given features or movements, which were homosexual in nature. Further, the advertisement made no reference to homosexual relationships. There was no innuendo or further suggestion of anything other,” Kellogg’s said in response to the complaint.
The ABS ruled the ad did not vilify the LGBTIQ+ community because: “In the context of a humorous scenario of a goldfish forgetting what it has just said and repeating itself, the depiction of a talking fish with no identifiable gender is not negative or demeaning to any person.”
Sultana Bran’s 15-second ad has over 1m views on YouTube, with 11 comments, 42 likes and four dislikes – compared to the 30-second TVC which has just 123,000 views.
1M views generated 11 comments – about 1 per 90 thousand
You just keep on flushing your client’s money down that drain adland.
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What a ridiculous complaint to make. How dare these high horse types waste everyone’s time. Talk about creating resent.
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And it also stereotypes rangas and is as insult to goldfish….I am appalled!
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same idea as what I did at Saaaaaatchi’s
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The whole argument is worthless, and those who lead the protest, really do need to review their lives to see what they are missing.
The fish is given gender by the use of a male voice, I personally feel that it should have been given a character voice, high and slightly childlike (Nimo-like without imitation) The question is, why should it be portrayed as gay? Then again why not? however, I have known many men in the theatre who have/had a camp voice and use/used camp expressions, but are/were heterosexual. Then again, since we all live on what is supposed to be a level playing field, why not have a camp voiced fish? However, I still wonder why.
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Oh GOD! It has just registered with me that the voice over artist might just be gay, and thus we are all showing prejudice, albeit unwittingly.
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Am I missing something? Surely the ‘joke’ in the ad is that the “Who knew?” line. That is: who knew there was fibre in the cereal/who knew the fish was camp as a row of pink tent pegs. I’m not going to say whether I think it’s offensive or not however I think Kellogg’s look dishonest by denying the intention. It would be interesting to hear the agency’s take on it.
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Why doesn’t this story say:
a) who complained?
b) how many complaints were received?
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I don’t think people understand, it is a definite camp voice representing a feminine male. Me and my partner are not but it also makes the fish after establishing it’s femininity as stupid. Get it? Gay, dumb and stereotyped. It is offensive to real people as it would be if the fish was swimming around with a bra on and stupid!!!
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I just love that gay goldfish – I laugh each time
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Stop it!!!
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“ah, stop it!” Gotta love the gay goldfish
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