Shot in black-and-white in a 1950s-era style, this over-the-top commercial for soda shows a mother sitting at the piano with her husband and son and daughter gathered around.
She asks, "Ready everybody?" Then begins playing a ditty on the piano. "Everybody in the world loves Irn-Bru," then each family member chimes in, "I do," "I do," "I do," "Me too." Then mom sings, "And I especially love Irn-Bru. Even though I used to be a man, even though I used to be a man!"
She turns with a smile to look at her family, who are all looking away awkwardly and upset, as this is obviously news to them.
The spot closes with her whistling the tune, and taking a shaver to her cheek, covered in shaving cream, with the sound of coarse hairs being cut.
This product is seen as a Scottish product in the UK, so the humor and "wierdness" of their campaigns plays on its regional roots. While this ad is hardly to be taken seriously, few transgender people will find it amusing.
OFCOM -- the British body responsible for standards of taste and decency in television advertising -- reported that 17 viewers complained.
The agency explained: “All
felt it made a joke of transsexuals. They felt that transsexuals already encountered discrimination and that advertising should not be allowed to make fun of them.”
Although OFCOM agreed that “the mother was shown as a strong character and not ashamed of her transsexuality” -- thus diminishing the alleged "mockery," the regulator “felt that the end scene with the woman shaving could be seen as directly mocking transsexual women and was capable of causing offense by strongly reinforcing negative stereotypes.”
The IRN-BRU advert was found to be in breach of the Advertising Standards Code and had to be pulled from air.
