A Speight's representative says there is no connection between their "back to the billboard" advertisement and a recent Fagg's Coffee advertisement that also appeared to make fun of gay men. The billboard, on display in the Ponsonby/Grey Lynn district in Auckland and on Wakefield St in Wellington where it appears adjacent to a Fagg's advertisement, appeared within weeks of an Advertising Standards Authority decision that a Fagg's Coffee billboard reading “Not as Ponsonby as the name suggests, Fagg's – the great straight coffee” was not a gay slur. "Our brief to our agency went in a number of months ago and we were merely waiting for our financial year to start to get the billboards up,” says Lion Breweries' mainstream brands director Doug Paulin. The Speight's billboard in question features the two southern men from the TV commercials with one saying “Interesting part of town” and the other saying “Keep yer back to the billboard, boy”. Mr Paulin has said there are no gay connotations intended to be taken from the advertisement, and as such does not consider the allegedly random placement of the billboard in a suburb well-known in Auckland as a gay part of town unfortunate. "Firstly I wouldn't have classed Ponsonby/Grey Lynn as anything other than a great area to live with fantastic ambience and hospitality, and secondly the billboard message is based on being on guard in the city if you are a Southern Man and our intention is absolutely not to offend anyone." Mr Paulin was also unaware that gay and straight people alike have been reading a gay slur into the advertisement. "No I wasn't aware of that, although a couple of my friends from the South Island took out of it exactly our key point which is that a southern man in a city for the first time would want trouble if it was coming, to be in front of him."
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Tuesday, 25th November 2003 - 12:00pm