Australian ad company Adshel had no idea that the 47 complaints it received against the above poster all came from the same source—a campaign organized by the Australian Christian Lobby—and not individual citizens. A Facebook campaign defending the posters, numerous media inquiries yesterday, and a 20-person protest at Adshel’s offices yesterday drove the company to reinstate the posters for their Brisbane bus stop campaign.
ACL’s Wendy Francis said of the posters, “They show two young homosexual men in some sort of act of foreplay. If something’s not allowed in a children’s timeslot on TV, I don’t think you should put it on a billboard or where children are waiting for the school bus.” In response comedian Josh Thomas said, “Wendy Francis thinks hugging is foreplay. Remember that if you see her hugging her kids.”
It turns out that the handsome couple in the poster are real-life fiances who have been together for 6½ years, engaged since August last year, and recently approved to become foster parents.
sam
I love that their reversal came with the clarification that it’s because the complaints came from the ACL, rather than the general public…. And that it’s not because of how unacceptable or downright retarded the complaints were -_-
Cam
“In response comedian Josh Thomas said, “Wendy Francis thinks hugging is foreplay. Remember that if you see her hugging her kids.””
_______________
Great line. LOL
jason
If this couple has been together for 6 and a half years, why do they need condoms? Assuming they are both healthy and faithful to each other, they shouldn’t need them.
It actually is quite offensive for any gay men’s health group to make the assumption that same-sex activity between men is automatically risky and thus requires protection. I also find it homophobic. It’s a form of gay-on-gay prejudice that is funded by governments and enabled by bureaucratic-minded gay twits in AIDS councils who want to prove how important they are.
I suppose that, with Australia being the backwater that it is, that you wouldn’t expect much from the GLBT community in general. They’re at least 20 years behind Great Britain and the USA.
the big one
@jason: Jason you’re a true foolish queen to say all of that. Had you not known that they were together you would say that they are having safe sex. It took me a year before I had unprotected sex with my lover of 5 years! it’s a great ad you silly sissy.
Peter
I find the fact that you called Australia a backwater extremely offensive. The ad is directed at young gay men, and is just out of numerous ads directed at young heterosexual individuals. It doesn’t make assumptions, and the couple were posing for the ad campaign, that doesn’t mean that they use condoms. Models and actors are doing just that, ACTING, and are almost never in the same situation in real life.
People who smoke in movies don’t smoke in real life, people who are gay or straight in movies may not be in real life, people who pose holding condoms on billboards may not use them in real life, and you should be a bit more considerate and subjective in your opinions before referring to a country as a backwater.
Daniel
@jason: Maybe they’re in an open relationship or they just prefer condoms that are “ribbed for her pleasure.”
jason
I find it offensive that the ad makers are assuming that male-male sex is automatically risky. It’s hugely offensive and counter-productive to the gay rights cause.
TimBo
@jason: I am assuming that Jason is American which would be interesting considering the amount of discrimination that still exists in the US today.
Obviously he has never been to Australia or otherwise his comments wouldn’t be that juvenile.
The point being they are models their sexual practices in private has nothing to do with the promotion.
I lived in Australia for many years and was a volunteer to the Queensland Aids Council which is a great organization and cares greatly for the community as a whole whether gay or straight.
Your a rude ignorant man who needs to be educated.
JB
@jason: Jason appears to be a real tool.
An update on this story – the ads were put backup last night.
People power verse lobbies!
PLAINTOM
Kuddos to everyone who helped get the ads backup. Sometimes you just have to yell louder then the haters.
Cam
I have to say that I agree with the point in the article.
Why did it matter where the complaints came from? The complaints are either valid or they weren’t.
Those complaints were stupid no matter whether they came from an anti-gay group or from 40 regular people.
The fact that they are putting them back up and using the excuse that it’s because they all came from one group is B.S. They shouldn’t have taken down these non-offensive ads in the first place over 40 something complaints.
Raquin
@jason: You do know that anal sex is the riskiest form of sex for HIV transmission, right? You also know that HIV contraction rates have risen significantly amongst the male having sex with males 15-24 population in Australia, right? Please tell me you actually had some sort of comprehensive knowledge about HIV transmission and risky sex practices before you stated your argument. I’m not trying to cut you down, but it seems you need to educate yourself on this matter a little more before you start spewing that this is some form of internalized homophobic response to gay sex amongst the gay population.
Chris
@jason: Not to mention (after reading others’ replies to you) that some of ads had two men, other had hetero couples (according to Peter). It wasn’t meant to be anti-gay. Just safe sex in general.
Jeffree
@Chris: & @Racquin: The entity called “jason” has posted numerous times on this site his false belief that H.I.V. doesn’t lead to A.I.D.S.
He knows as much about Australia as he does about STDs.
On a positive note, he is extremely good at punctuation.