(Trans character in Libra Tampons advertisement. (photo: YouTube)
THE GUERRILLA ANGEL REPORT — (Update: This commercial is being pulled off the air — see below.) In the TV commercial a cis woman and a trans woman applying makeup in the ladies room are competitively trying to top each other until finally, the cis woman pulls out a tampon leaving the trans woman “defeated”.
View the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lReX1dAUAE&context=C348ad87ADOEgsToPDskJAdDjO-1NTEDdJwLzpVNPn
Around the net this commercial has managed to offend, in addition to trans women, cis women and trans men. This company has attracted the ire of many people before with other offensive ads leading me to believe that they expect the “free” publicity from this will actually boost sales.
Trans character in Libra Tampon commercial. (Click for larger image. Source: YouTube)
What do you think we ought to do? Ignore them or respond with our thoughts? Or is it just funny and we need to focus on more important things?
Libra’s FB page: http://www.facebook.com/Libra?sk=wall
Libra’s website: http://www.lovelibra.co.nz/
UPDATE Jan. 4, 2012: The Huffington Post is saying that the company is pulling the ads off the air: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/03/libra-tampon-ad-transgender-woman_n_1181160.html
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http://www.lovelibra.com.au/en-au/about-libra/contact-us/
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bad advertising on so many levels.
Of course, it’s offensive like every other media portrayal of Trans women. However, I’ve never heard of Libra tampons, I don’t believe they are sold in my area. I will raise holy Hell against ABC, but these people aren’t worth my time. Small potatoes like this will go away if we ignore them. However, if anyone else wants to write Libra and tell them to F*** Off, be my guest.
For me … it is a more or less funny spot… called DRAG. Theres no trans woman in the spot… and you can believe me that a real drag queen will never be defeated by a girl with a Tampon *loool* …. i was so many times in exactly this situation… ok… without the tampon of course.. but i think a would have such a fun when it happens sometimes 🙂
For me, it’s just funny. Not very funny but funny. But it is not transphobic, i think. 🙂
Just funny ? The final statement says “libra gets girls” this explicitly says if you are not wearing tampons you are not a girl. How could they be more clearly transphobic than that ? Plus the trans girl here has bad teeth and a horrible make-up. Nice stereotype once more. No this ad is absolutely not funny !
I wrote stuff like “Libra is a sexistic company. Google Libra Tampons Commercial and see what we think about them and their cheap promo actions. Shame on em.” on YT. And I wrote something similar to http://www.lovelibra.com.au/en-au/about-libra/contact-us/
They can put 50 of their products into each of their commercial profitasses.
Thanks for posting
I don’t know that I find it offensive. I don’t think it was necessary to touch on what is such a sensitive issue right now. Every day there seems to be someone else posting something that is offensive to the LGBTQI community, and the Trans community seems to be where most of the attacks are aimed. However, I don’t think this is a battle worth fighting, simply because how does this affect us? Is it a slap in the face, yes, but it’s not like someone was physically attacked or directly targeted. It’s in poor taste on their side, but I think fighting smaller battles like this just takes time and energy away from the more important issues.
It is stuff that this that helps the attacks happen.
the implication “Not real women” why should we have to be treated like such.
“Traps” oh we are obviously out to decieve hurt them, so that gives reason to hurt first.
“Trannies”. oh ‘just’ a Tranny, why should be worried about hurting them?
People keep saying why fight theese things when there are still people getting hurt, THAT is why, this ‘meaningless’ stuff, helps lead to the people getting hurt.
It’s a great ad very funny – people are too sensitive can’t have a laugh about anything these days geez.