Terrence Higgins Trust/CHAPS, Prejudice
This sullen ad has no background music. Many of the shots are unclear or simply of a silhouetted face.
"Homosexuality has always been an issue in my life," says a man whose face we can't see. "I knew I was different when I was in school." His face comes into focus and it seems that he is talking about being gay.
"Some of my friends started guessing, but to be fair, they didn't treat me any differently. It was after I left school -- that's when the problems started. Some people didn't want anything to do with me. I even lost my job because of it. Boss called me in one Friday afternoon. Told me I was sacked. Just like that. He said it was my timekeeping, but we both know what the real reason was. Well, I'm not going to change for him or anybody."
But surprisingly, he continues, "I hate queers. Poofs. Faggots. They're freaks. They deserve to die." His face looks hateful and he spits each word out angrily. It's then revealed that the man is in prison.
"It's prejudice that's queer," reads the screen.
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The final shot does imply that the guy went further than just holding private opinions about homosexuality; the likely implication is that he has committed a hate crime. But that is not addressed in the ad. But as far as we know, the character's job loss was really just because his boss didn't like his views. Surely drawing a tad more attention to why he is in jail (other than just his beliefs) would go a long way towards making the character more unsympathetic to a general audience, and to emphasize the real dangers of homophobia and hate. And surely hate crimes are more serious than simply being a prejudiced idiot, and should not be treated as an afterthought.
Even the closing statement makes me uncomfortable - "it's prejudice that's queer". While I like the "prejudice is bad" message, this tagline actually uses the word "queer" to express "bad, disgusting"... isn't that an association that we've been working hard to break? After all this time of declaring "queer" to be a wonderful, cherished adjective, this ad unintentionally goes back to using it as an insult. None of these things were intentioned by the makers - as I said, all their intentions were laudable. It just doesn't come off very well.