Like many of you argued, the Foster’s ad that featured campy advice experts Brad and Dan fielding a question from a man concerned rubbing suntan lotion on his friend would make him look gay, the beer company also insists the spot was a play on homophobia, and not homophobic itself. Homophobia, Foster’s says in a statement, “would be totally unacceptable and it has no place in our business. … The humour in our ad is derived from a particular set of circumstances where our character seeks advice from Brad & Dan – it plays on his perception of the awkwardness of the situation; and to the Aussie ‘no worries’ attitude to life. … Humour has the power to unite, and occasionally to divide opinion – but we sincerely hope that the vast majority of viewers will accept our best intentions to make a funny and well meaning commercial.” Does intent matter? Absolutely. And while I stand by my conclusion that the ad, on the surface, is the very definition of homophobia, I’ll join hands with any company that pokes fun at bigotry.
Sceth
Which is exactly how I interpreted it. Sure, not everyone thought was satirical, but not everything bends for the easily offended.
Erich
More importantly, how come no one is wondering how it’s daylight in both locations? Or summer in both the northern and southern hemispheres?
Damon
I’m pissed that you can’t get away with satirical racism. As soon as you use any word which is concievable racist the media labels you racist. One example is Frankie Boyle in his recent tv series.
Damon
I don’t believe the ad is homophobic. The guy in it just doesn’t want to appear gay, like alot of men, as it will hinder his pulling power with the ladies.
Damon
I don’t believe the ad is homophobic. The guy in it just doesn’t want to appear gay, like alot of men, as it will hinder his pulling power with the ladies.
Similarly I don’t want to come off as straight as it will lower my success rates.
McMike
Hmmm… Now that I’ve heard Foster’s explanation, I’m wondering why they didn’t make it more obvious they were satirizing homophobia since this commercial could be viewed either way. There are a million ways you could poke fun at homophobia but to make a commercial which could be viewed as homophobic makes me wonder if Foster’s isn’t just full of it with their explanation.
McMike
btw, I’m a bit skeptical about the explanation because just the other day I was at the beach when this guy asked a girl to put lotion on his back and then joked to the guy next to him about that guy putting it on his back because, you know, there’s just no way a guy can put lotion on another guy’s back without being labeled a ‘fag’.
LukeJoe
There is no other way to view this commercial other than as homophobic.
Shofixti
Why do homosexuals have an interest in robbing heterosexual men from being able to explore the conflicts of power in their own relationships? The humour is in their ineptitude and dependence on voices of authority. Into this imbalance comes Fosters – a product that hints at naturalising your identity and making everything alright.
That’s a concept we understand don’t we? Consumerism and identity go hand in hand in gay culture too.
What I’d like to see is an ad where a gay man calls for advice on putting sunscreen on his straight pal, and they tell him to make his friend down a few more beers! Maybe not.
TheRealAdam
That’s right, Uncle Toms, soak it up. Soak up the bigot’s explanation.
@Damon: What kind of lame ass justification is that?
@McMike: Exactly. If they were deliberately trying to lampoon homophobia, they would have made the ad MORE clear and less ambiguous and open to interpretation.
But what the company did was deliberately try to walk the fine line between blatant homophobia and satire, so that they could then say it was the latter when it started to upset people. That enables the company to keep the ad and superficially save face and appear pro-gay by dropping a cliched “homophobia has no place in our business” line.
The company isn’t interested or invested in fighting homophobia. The goal was to have a laugh at our expense and mock homosexuality.
People need to stop drinking the bigot’s kool-aid and wake up.
Lamar
Definitely agree with McMike and TheRealAdam, obviously if the whole point was to lampoon homophobia it wouldn’t be so easyily interpreted as homophobic itself.
Griller
Well… Duh!
No-one thought it was homophobic.
But they fed this to the morons at Pink News – who then said it was “homophobic”.
That’s how the press office made it a story.
Wonder if they paid them?
Joe
well… isn’t satire supposed to be funny? This ad is just stupid. And the least they could do was choose an actor who is packing some heat in his speedos
Seandee
Why do we care if it is homophobic? Would it be the first beer ad aimed at straight, homophobic men? If we are generous and think that 10% of the population is gay and maybe half of those drink beer and maybe 25% of those have the bad taste to drink an over-sized, poor tasting, import beer, then why should fosters care if they offend the gays? We are not really the market they are aiming for.
Perhaps the game of “spot-the-homophobia” is a desperate attempt by people in a nation not willing to jump into the 21st century and see anyone other that straight white people as equals and worthy of rights. This is actually a funny little commercial making fun of those straight stereotypes of the guy that is so afraid of being seen as gay that he will go to ridiculous lengths to prove his masculinity.
People need to stop looking for problems where they don’t exist and focus that attention on the real issues in their lives.
The Artist
The ad is silly. If a guy feels that uncomfortable putting lotion on his friends back he’s stupid. PEACELUVNBWILDYALL!
Derek Washington
@Damon:
“No. 3 · Damon
I’m pissed that you can’t get away with satirical racism. As soon as you use any word which is concievable racist the media labels you racist. One example is Frankie Boyle in his recent tv series.”
You’re upset you can’t be a racist?
Ohhhhh….Kay.
Kev C
@Lamar: Many people suffer from sarcasm impairment. Nothing to be ashamed of.
[img]http://th732.photobucket.com/albums/ww322/teamgwho/sarcasm_detector.jpg[/img]
thematics
This whole bid’ness of straight men being afraid to apply sunscreen to each other seems very 19th Century. In my Northern European home-country, where I mostly lived until age 14, this is a total NON-issue. Not one of my straight mates there would even understand why this sensitivity occurs. Where does this prudery come from?
Is the homophobia in the advert itself, or rather in the guys they’re making light of? I opt for the latter interpretation.
justiceontherocks
@Kev C: If the folks claiming this thing is homophobic ever saw All in the Family, they’d shit their diapers. “Sexist, racist, homophobic, anti Semitic . . .” It must be hard walking around with a chip on your shoulder all the time.
Shannon1981
@justiceontherocks: I watch All in the Family re runs all the time, and the spin off, of course, the Jeffersons, where George is like a black Archie Bunker, racist, sexist, and everything else in the book. Those shows broke a lot of barriers back in the day. It showed how stupid the prejudice really is.
I took the ad the way Foster’s says it was meant to be taken. But it wasn’t funny, they didn’t quite pull off what they meant to pulls off, I don’t think.
Storm
Not to go all into the shallow end of this really deep discussion, but I just want to know how to get my hands on the bloke in the yellow speedo. Totally fuckable.
thematics
Yes! @Just-Ice: & @Shannon’81:
All in the Family broke new ground dealing with gender, race, S.O., religion, etc. A show like that today would never be shown in the US, because it touches too many raw nerves in our society. We’ve got so PC that we’re all rather afraid to even discuss those topics openly. Sad, isn’t it?
@Storm:
We have our eye on the same bloke. Since you called ‘dibs’ first, you can have the first go!
TheRealAdam
@justiceontherocks: What must be even more difficult is being a passive Uncle Tom with your head perpetually in the sand. Tell us all how you cope, why don’t you?
Rrhain
If it were truly satire, then there would be a moment in the ad that poked fun at the gay panic. If the ad were, say, of a couple of rugby players where they’re playing shirts vs. skins and at the end, the guy smacks his buddy on the ass, they chest bump, and do all of the other homoerotic things that you see on playing fields, then they might have a case: “Oh, you can grab my ass but putting sunscreen on is gay!” is clearly making fun of gay panic, not gays.
So where was the moment of making fun of the panic? I realize that there isn’t much time in the ad for a lot of buildup, but surely if the intent was to make fun of those who are so insecure in their masculinity that they are constantly wondering if they’re gay (which means, of course, that they are), then there could be a moment where you could point out the barb. Where is it? Instead, the ad simply reinforced the legitimacy of gay panic. At no point is anybody ridiculed for the idea that one man putting sunscreen on another makes you gay. So help me out: If it was making fun of homophobia, how did it do it? No, you rolling your eyes at the ridiculousness of it isn’t sufficient. Where in the actual ad do we find that same reaction from anyone? What dialog indicates such? What images show it?
Be specific.
unpopular
i’ll keep my budgie smuggler and sunscreen.
… and the insecure straights can keep wearing their budgie burka and have their sunburn.
Fitz
If you look for excuses to be offended around every corner, you are going to have a very bitter and unhappy life. There are really homophobic things out there. There are people who hate us, and want us dead; this silly commercial and the company behind it is NOT our enemy.
Jeffree
@Rrhain: Nope, that’s not how satire works. You’re not required to break the “fourth wall” or say “just kidding” at the end.
@Fitz: I hope the thin-skinned on here wear more than sunscreen — they need full armor because they can’t tell the difference between a wedgie and a war !
justiceontherocks
@TheRealAdam: See comment 26. It was written for you.
Good luck working through your anger problems. And take some of Judge Judy’s advice: “Don’t drink, you don’t have any brain cells to spare.”
Max
The real offense is that this advertisement is not funny, not even a chuckle.
James P.
if you don’t get the structure of the joke, you are not going to get the joke itself. remember this old stupid joke:
“Two guys are out hiking in the woods one of them stops to take a leek and a snake bites him right in the penis. the other guy runs to the ranger station to see what to do , the ranger says you have to suck the poison out. the guy runs back to his friend and tells him your going to die.”
it’s not particularly funny to us homos, but to straight folk it gets a giggle. no where in here is there anything homophobic… but one can read into that if one chose. It’s not actually there, mind you, but those with a need for attention and drama will create conflict even in none was intended. this commercial, miller’s commercial, Snickers for a few years ago are all good examples. if you don’t get the joke, that is fine… but don’t scream “homophobia!” every time a joke goes over your head.
if you want big companies with REAL homophobia as oppose to this perceived homophobia, go read up on Chick-fa-la.
Shawneeboy
The guy who said “where’s the making fun of gay panic” is totally correct. He’s not saying, jeffree, that they have to say, “just kidding”, etc., he’s saying the ad does not actually poke fun of the guy who’s afraid of being/appearing homosexual. The ad actually shows an entire support system set up to help guys who are afraid of “gayness” do their best to not appear or be gay. There is no satire at all of homophobia.
And I have plenty of “a life”. Just because someone has an opinion on this article, doesn’t mean they are wasting their life ranting and raving at every possible oppurtunity, it means they posted an opinion, just like EVERYBODY here has posted an opinion.
Jeffree
@Shawneeboy: We must have different definitions of “satire” then. No big deal.
Perhaps you’re thinking of irony?
Who said you don’t have a life? Wasn ‘t me.
Skeptical Cicada
The company’s explanation is laughable–and its moralizing is intelligence-insulting.
The ad is nothing but an extended validation of homophobia. Nothing in this ad questions the caller’s hysterical attitude or makes fun of it in the least. Pure validation.
A work is not satire is it requires an accompanying press release explaining that its “intent” was satire.
Cloud9
I can’t even understand what they’re saying.
sam
Awww it’s becks 🙂
The advice guy on the right used to work at my radio station ^_^
Jackson
@Fitz: You choose to ignore subtle homophobia. This add is drenched with homophobia…some of us in the gay community will not stand for homophobia in any light, be it subtle or strong. We demand respect with our rights. You obviously have grown prone to being the laughing stock.
TheRealAdam
@Jackson: A-fucking-men.
Jeffree
@Jackson: I hope you never read “the Onion” because their piece on how God destroyed Davenport, Iowa due to a “gay marriage” will competely unhinge you.