Is Thailand Ready For Normal Gay Commercials?

[PeaceBlondie]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10...ained-year.html

One of our moderators, Maestro, noticed this controversy in the UK, where a commercial for Heinz Mayonnaise featured a couple of gay men in a domestic scene, preparing lunch, and kissing. They are presented not as a parody, but as a more or less normal couple with a stay-at-home husband and a working husband. Come to think of it, I bought a house from such a couple, in a tough neighborhood of Oklahoma City, in 1977. Heinz has withdrawn the TV commercial after receiving over 200 complaints, according to the report in the British tabloid.

Is Thailand ready to show a fully-clothed domestic scene of two husbands at home? How many Thai TV shows depict gay or lesbian couples living together without making much of a fuss over it? I lived in a resort town in Central America where a gay couple (the more femme man being a cross-dresser in lipstick) ran a shop and once hosted a Miss Gay Nicaragua Transvestite Contest.

I recall the USA having its first gay or lesbian television kiss many years ago. What about Thailand

[ProThaiExpat]

A Thai movie hit the mainline theaters a few months ago called "Love of Siam", the story of two school boys who fell in love while in high school.

The main theme of the movie was that the expectaions of Thai society and the "man" boy in the story turned him from his natural inclination to consumate the relationship with his cuter and for artistic pop singer boyfriend. As his mother explained it to the pop singer, "leave my son alone, he has family responsibilites and must marry and have a wife and children for the good of our family".

A good falang friend saw the movie in the theater when it first came out, and he reported that the reaction of the Thai audience was clearly "shock", since the movie had not been billed as having such a theme or that there was an aredent kiss between the two boys, what the mother saw and motivated her to "protect" her son.

As the "male" boy said to his love when they parted was "I will always love you but we cannot be boyfriends".

I believe there are some posts on this movie.

Like the U.S., I suspect the kids under 30 have no problem with gay kisses as long as they are not highly sex charged and involve prolonged "deep throat" tongue action, while the old folks and, of course, the "guardians of Thai morality" would highly disaprove. Since they have control and are paying for the commercials, I doubt we will see them soon.

[Steve2UK]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10...ained-year.html

One of our moderators, Maestro, noticed this controversy in the UK, where a commercial for Heinz Mayonnaise featured a couple of gay men in a domestic scene, preparing lunch, and kissing. They are presented not as a parody, but as a more or less normal couple with a stay-at-home husband and a working husband. Come to think of it, I bought a house from such a couple, in a tough neighborhood of Oklahoma City, in 1977. Heinz has withdrawn the TV commercial after receiving over 200 complaints, according to the report in the British tabloid.

Is Thailand ready to show a fully-clothed domestic scene of two husbands at home? How many Thai TV shows depict gay or lesbian couples living together without making much of a fuss over it? I lived in a resort town in Central America where a gay couple (the more femme man being a cross-dresser in lipstick) ran a shop and once hosted a Miss Gay Nicaragua Transvestite Contest.

I recall the USA having its first gay or lesbian television kiss many years ago. What about Thailand

Having worked in UK commercials production for some 20 years, I was more than a bit surprised to read this. Checking out the link reveals that it's not actually a gay couple and the ad also shows their kids getting ready for school (OK - not totally impossible for a gay couple to have 2 kids, but also not likely in a commercial). The following comment from a contributor to the Daily Mail website sums it up:

"What a ridiculous storm in a teacup! For a start people have entirely missed the point of the ad. The man preparing the sandwiches in the kitchen is dressed in chef's whites and has a slightly dodgy accent, supposed to represent a stereotypical New York Deli chef. The idea being that using Heinz's new range of Deli-style mayonnaise is like having a Deli chef in your kitchen. The ad doesn't actually portray a same-sex relationship (not that there would be anything wrong if it did!), but simply makes out that, through the power of the new mayo, mum has effectively morphed into a New York deli chef. Perfectly harmless fun, although I suspect Heinz are probably quite pleased about this supposed controversy, as it is surely increasing the product's exposure. Anyway, fascinating to see that people still get outraged about this sort of thing, including those that haven't even seen the ad (see comments above)!"

[adelet]

Heinz 'male kiss' ad draws hundreds of complaints | Media | guardian.co.uk

Here is the ad......hope the link works............I think its rather good!!! Huge fuss over here now from the gay rights group Stonewall who claim it is a targeted group of people who ring several times over to complain as they did last year when a huge billboard went up around London saying 'Some people are gay. Get over it!' And now they are asking us to boycott Heinz but I am not sure I can see that happening!

This wasn't shown during any kid's programmes and yes its different but I admire the guts that made it........new to this forum having just found it so thanks to all...........

[lazeeboy]

200 complaints,how many thousands saw it and dont care,great advertising gimic ,people will remember the product

[Ijustwannateach]

A rather clever and subtle series of poster ads for home theatre systems recently showed a couple sitting on a sofa from the back, watching a movie on the TV. Without looking closely, it would have been easy to miss the detail that the more prominent figure, a man, had his arm around the other who was clearly snuggled up against him so that all you could see was the top of the head- but the hairstyle of the second person was clearly also a trendy man's style. Saw this one on the MRT.

[cophen]

For those non-Brit readers of this forum the Daily Mail is regularly outraged by pretty much anything that's changed in the past 100 years. They ought to rename it 'The Little Englander'.

[sendbaht]

Ready or not if it sells a product and hurts no one why not.

I'm in Los Angeles and our mayor yesterday married two "gay guys" they showed it on TV and he even said "you may now kiss your partner"

The couple looked happy, that to me is all that mattered.

[noctiluca]

Wow... And I thought British are more open about this thing than American, I mean openness to sexuality.

I think the ad is funny, maybe even cute, but I digress.

Anyway, back to Thailand. If you ask me, I would say no it's not ready for Thailand, at the moment anyhow.

I remember quite a few years back, now thinking about it maybe ten years ago, we had a TV ad from a beverage company. Not sure what the exact product is, either beer or some kind of alcoholic drink. The ad shows two good-looking "hunks" playing with each other on a beach, shirtless I might add, and of course with the "drink". It created a buzz to the sophisticated Thais, particularly those with alternative lifestyle. Not sure the rural folks got the idea, though. The subtext was not too obvious, since it didn't raise a flag with me in the beginning, until I heard someone else talking about it. IMHO, the guys were definitely "hot", and could be considered, what we now call, metrosexual.

[Scott]

I saw the ad on the link (thanks). It didn't appear to be at all gay-- I can't really see those kids calling that guy "mom", at least not that casually. It's quite a well done ad; it's catchy and interesting. I think that the social equivalent of the moral police have to pretty perverted to see it as gay. But then some people thought the Teletubbies were gay!

Different strokes for different folks.

If I were going to make the ad 'gay', I would have been something quite different with the mayo!

I wonder if the mayo is any good!

[adelet]

OMG you mean the Teletubbies are NOT gay............ruined my day now

[steveromagnino]

A lot of Thais are outraged by any kissing at all on Thai TV, ever noticed how little kissing you see in Thai soap operas (i.e. basically none).

So no, unlikely the ad would air here and be acceptable, but for very different reasons than from the leads being gay.

The countless gay characters in Thai soap operas (and yes, I played one at one point in my minor acting career) were often depicted in normal relationships on any channels other than 7 (who are for upcountry and every single character is like a characiture of a real person).

Cuddling between two men or two women or showing transgender all non issues. Actually, there was an implied kiss ad with a fairly attractive transgender with a smint or something, you see a handsome guy walk past, look, and then it flashes to he is sucking the lolly with smeared lipstick, and she is looking at him strangely - ran maybe 5-6 years ago - was a nice funny cute ad and at the same time worked better because the guy you would not pick to kiss her.

Anyhow, probably would have far more limited appeal other than being edgy if you had two guys walking along; but then again it probably would win more ad awards.

[ozzydom]

Public displays of affection whether it be heterosexual or homosexual are generally frowned on in Los and yet the tv variety shows both here and in other Asian nations contain heaps of campy comedy and get great receptions.

I think the Thais would accept gay commercials with a light hearted ,comedic theme as indeed most nationalities do.

[Jimjim]

Only 200 complaints? Heinz are weenies to back down so easily with just a few stupid people complaining.

There was a movie in the cinema last year called "Bangkok Love Story" I believe. Movie posters were provocative and it was clearly a movie about two gay men. I didn't see it but just assume. Thailand is behind in some areas compared to other countries but I think in this area we could hope it would be ahead. I can't say for sure but that's just my feeling.

Edit: Now that I just watched the commercial, I agree it was not meant to be "gay" at all, but assuming that the mom turned into a New York deli chef because of the Heinz. However, this premise wasn't too clear and a stretch to assume everyone would follow this because they'd just be focused on the kiss between 2 men. Anyway, I still thought it was quite funny.

Edited July 18, 2008 by Jimjim

[Navalator]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10...ained-year.html

One of our moderators, Maestro, noticed this controversy in the UK, where a commercial for Heinz Mayonnaise featured a couple of gay men in a domestic scene, preparing lunch, and kissing. They are presented not as a parody, but as a more or less normal couple with a stay-at-home husband and a working husband. Come to think of it, I bought a house from such a couple, in a tough neighborhood of Oklahoma City, in 1977. Heinz has withdrawn the TV commercial after receiving over 200 complaints, according to the report in the British tabloid.

Is Thailand ready to show a fully-clothed domestic scene of two husbands at home? How many Thai TV shows depict gay or lesbian couples living together without making much of a fuss over it? I lived in a resort town in Central America where a gay couple (the more femme man being a cross-dresser in lipstick) ran a shop and once hosted a Miss Gay Nicaragua Transvestite Contest.

I recall the USA having its first gay or lesbian television kiss many years ago. What about Thailand

[PeaceBlondie]

I recall the USA having its first gay or lesbian television kiss many years ago. What about Thailand

Not the same, Navalator. Thais think public kissing, by straights or gays, is taboo.