Here's some good news. We've got in touch with the ad agency that created the "'Same Sex' or 'Safe Sex'" ad for DNA and explained to them why we felt it was highly offensive. They have agreed to our point of view and have persuaded the client to withdraw the ad. It should be coming off the hoardings as we speak. (But more on that in a minute - keep reading, because we may need some help).
If the ad does come down tonight, few people will have seen it, which is good, but it might make people wonder if it was really that bad. And believe me, it was. Alok's mail was bang on about how bad it was and how important it was for us to protest it. I could hardly believe when I saw it. There have been a few Indian ads with queer characters and except for one ad for jeans (which was meant to be provocative) none of the others have been particularly queer friendly. But none was as explicitly homophobic as this one: being offered "Same Sex" or "Safe Sex" like they were two polar choices was as good as saying if you go in for homosexual sex you're risking death. Its the sort of thing you expect from American evangelicals. Not something likely to come from a new Indian newspaper that claimed it wanted to really listen to all its potential readers, who must include a fair number of gay people. So was there a secret homophobe over there? Was this a sign of the paper's small town roots - it comes from the Dainik Bhaskar group which, like most Hindi papers, isn't likely to be hugely gay friendly? Was it an attempt to create a controversy? (Several people we spoke to said that) Or was it just stupidity on the part of the ad agency? The ad was so bad that the last might seem unlikely, but I've worked in advertising for four years myself and covered it as a journalist for longer and from that I've learned never to underestimate the stupidity of ad people. Advertising exists in a little universe of its own, cut off from all sorts of issues and concerns, and that's why they quite often do things that seem unbelievable to people outside. I worked for an ad agency that, at the height of the Narmada agitation, released ads for the Narmada development authority praising the project, and then was surprised when it got negative reactions from the anti-Narmada activists. Need one say more? So first I thought I'd check what the agency was thinking when it came up with the ad. Here we got lucky. The agency was Rediffusion where the creative director was someone I had worked with ages back. He's a typical ad guy, self consciously cool and 'different', basically quite a nice guy. And when I called and asked him what he was thinking when he came up with the ad - he was the copywriter for that line itself - he said, quite blankly, "I didn't think of it that way." According to him they were just tossing off lines late at night and this sounded cool, Same/Safe and slightly daring, and they sent off the lines to the client, who apparently approved them too without thinking much and people who's never been in advertising may not believe this, but I can see how it happened. They just didn't think about its potential to offend, they just didn't think about it much at all and went with it. In a big campaign like DNA, with frequent copy changes these things can happen. As soon as he realised our point of view, the creative director was very contrite. He said he would call the client at once and ask if they could pull the ad. And within half an hour he called me back saying DNA had agreed at once. "We don't want to gain mileage at the expense of any group," said the creative guy apologetically. And so the hoardings should be coming down tonight. (I offered an even better solution: they could keep the hoarding up and just paint in two tick marks, so it would read Same Sex [TICK] Safe Sex [TICK], but unfortunately they don't seem to be going with this!) I think this episode proves several points: 1) When something like this happens, make sure your viewpoint is heard at once. 2) People will listen. I think this is a big change. In the past people wouldn't have bothered with queer viewpoints, but today they will at least listen. Geeta Kumana of the Aanchal group got the Seven nightclub to change its policy of banning one of the lesbians from her group simply by confronting them, politely, but without being budged and they gave in. I didn't think they would, but I was wrong in this case. As Geeta says, its important to show these people that we aren't faceless, hidden people whose views they can afford to ignore. Simply by showing up and making our views known can make people change their policy. 3) Get others to help as well. Geeta also called Rediffusion to register our viewpoint, Alok sent his mail to them, and friends in DNA helped by telling us who to send protests to, and also raising questions themselves. 4) Try and dialogue. Most of the time, as I think this DNA case proves, people on the other side haven't understood our viewpoint. And the truth is that most people just don't have even a basic knowledge of gay issues. Perhaps one should have more sensitisation programmes for people like my ad agency friend, but in the end I think the only change will come from something more basic: if more people come out and so more people get to know gay people. That's something everyone can do, anytime, whether there's an issue like this or not. Finally, where we need the help of everyone in Bombay. I don't doubt that my friend was sincere when he said the hoardings were coming down. But my experience of advertising has also taught me that between intentions and implementation in ad agencies, there can be quite a gap. Also hoardings are notoriously hard to control and get accounted for. And since this campaign was spread across the city, its quite possible that a few hoardings with this "'Same Sex' or 'Safe Sex'" ad might be missed out. So if you see any, please could you mail me at once at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or call me if you know my number, and I'll pass on the information to the ad agency. Vikram Group Site: http://www.gaybombay.info ========================== This message was posted to the gay_bombay Yahoo! Group. Responses to messages (by clicking "Reply") will also be posted on the eGroup and sent to all members. If you'd like to respond privately to the author of any message then please compose and send a new email message to the author's email address. Post:- gay_bombay@yahoogroups.com Subscribe:- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Digest Mode:- [EMAIL PROTECTED] No Mail Mode:- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Individual Mail Mode:- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Contact Us:- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives are at http://www.mail-archive.com/gay_bombay%40yahoogroups.com/maillist.html Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
