Stop the press. Paddy Power’s Ladies Day commercial has been pulled from TV.
The decision to suspend the clip wasn’t made by us – it was done by the British TV advertising regulator along with television broadcasters.
This is especially frustrating given the commercial was already pre-approved by British television advertising clearance body Clearcast, just one week ago, who then considered the humour in the advert, while not to everyone’s taste, fell short of causing offence.
Additionally, Paddy Power reached out to leading UK transgender group, The Beaumont Society, for feedback on the script.
The Beaumont Society said there was “nothing untoward with the advert concept” and felt it was not inappropriate since “the entire campaign would be a tongue-in-cheek look at the Ladies Day race meeting where these days a large number of cross dressers make a day of it”.
Furthermore, Paddy Power cast members of the trans-community in the various transgender roles in the commercial. Given the attention and diligence we demonstrated throughout the development of this commercial, we are very disappointed by today’s decision.
Finally it is worth pointing out that the commercial, which went live on YouTube less than one week ago, has almost 250,000 views with more ‘likes’ than ‘dislikes’.
The next commercial in Paddy Power’s “We Hear You” advertising campaign, “CHAVS”, will be broadcast on the company’s YouTube channel shortly.
As always, Paddy Power is looking forward to a healthy and robust debate on our campaigns. Were they right to ban us?
great add
Cant believe it i found it quite amusing ..pretty sad if they stop adverts like that
Yeah, it’s pretty sad if they stop making adverts that target transgendered people and masculine women for harassment and abuse? What?
Absolutely ridiculous…..they should ban PPI, injury lawyers and frickin irritating insurance adverts featuring fat blokes in a moustache…..original and refreshing ad……Britain has lost her sense of humour….keep showing it in Ireland !!
Steve Mitchell, please scroll down and rad Dee Vansont’s post. If that doesn’t make you change your mind, you have no heart whatsoever.
What do you mean by you reached out to the trans-gender group, wouldn’t you have been better of just contacting them instead???
I’m sorry you can’t bring yourselves to apologise for putting trans people across the UK in danger. I have heard stories of people who have been confronted purely on the basis of this ad. Would you do this to any other vulnerable and marginalised group?
It’s not political correctness – it’s treating people with responsibility to ensure their safety.
Great to hear it’s been pulled. Also why doesn’t paddy power tell people that it showed a different script to the Beaumont Society than the one they did the ad with…
Synthetic rage.
PR gimmick, ban fuels controversy, controversy pushes up web hit count.
Paddypower pays £4-5k figure sum a month of PR firm for getting noticed.
Not really, they spent money on this ad and aren’t getting it back now. I don’t think this will earn them enough new customers to make up for ones lost. A lot of people don’t like to be seen as misogynistic jackasses in this day and age.
HuH ! Paddy power you didn’t decide to pull the clip, you had to because Clearcast withdrew the licence for it to be used because it was deemed offensive . You are doing a grand job of living up to the Irish stereotype of being a complete idiot
And your next ad is going to be about ‘CHAVS’ yet more abuse towards a section a poor section of society!
Wow! So your frustrated and disappointed that the view of decency and what causes offense is outside your control.
Where is the apology for those that I know you have caused offense too over the last few days?
At least Clearcast had the good sense to do that in their statement.
The Beaumont Society is NOT a recognised transgender support group, having recently helped the Sun start a witch-hunt of an innocent family, they are to be perfectly nice a cross dresser support group NOT a transgender support group and their voice is only quoted by companies who try stunts like this. The Beaumont Society will respond because it makes them feel stuffy and important.
The advert was exceedingly offensive, and were you to do the same thing about race, you’d be lucky if your company were still in business by the end of the week. But of course dealing with a marginalised vulnerable minority, trading on the worst stereotypes you should be ashamed of yourselves.
The advertising regulator pulled your Ad because it was offensive and discriminatory, and rather than apologising for a piece of transphobic garbage, you whine that “we got permission from the attention seekers”.
Great to hear this appalling ad has been removed. A victory for people power. FANTASTIC!
Ha! Exactly what Paddy Power wanted you schmuck!
If that’s truly what Paddy Power wanted then I think a deeper investigation needs to be done into this as it means it’s run by truly evil people that have no business in the media.
I thought the previous PP advert with the two models canoodling over the new I-Phone app was actually worse. Speaking myself as a supermodel, I found it’s portrayal of us beautiful people to be highly offensive, making us out to be fickel and down right thick, so degrading. Hell, it put me off my asparagus and brocolli salad!
Sort it out Paddy you repulsive swine!!
Smoggie, please scroll down and rad Dee Vansont’s post. If that doesn’t make you change your mind, you have no heart whatsoever.
A result for common sense and decency, Clearcast got the message, if somewhat belatedly, that this was indeed horrifically endangering for trans women – it was also utterly misogynistic in that it belittled all women, whether trans or not. The Beaumont society’s quote that “…these days a large number of cross dressers make a day of it” is very indicative of where that organisation’s loyalties lie – well, here’s the thing, cross dressers are not representative of trans women, they are a different group – and whilst most within the trans community would support the right of cross dressing men to wear whatever they want (whether for a day at the races or a night in some seedy club) we’re not happy for them to be put forward as in any way comparable with trans women and bringing about a situation that physically endangers us. In short, whilst cross dressers may be perfectly happy to be ‘read’ as what they in fact are – men in frocks – and by a simple change of clothes go back to being ‘just ordinary guys’; trans women are never happy to be ‘read’, as that can so often be the precursor to insults, abuse, beating, rape or perhaps even murder; and we can’t and don’t just creep off somewhere and ‘change back’. It’s about time that you realised that power requires responsibility – a full and unreserved apology is now very much overdue.
Hilarious advert. If it was a PR gimmick- well done as I heard about it and came to the website. Long live the Irish stereotype of being funny. Sometimes this comes at the expense of others but humour usually does and those that learn to ease up and laugh at life’s absurdities will be all the better for it. Looking forward to the Chav one, however as a former Chav I might get offended and I may post some incomprehensibly long barrage of abuse involving the words “innit” “ya get me” and “blud”. Quick tip for those that enjoy cross dressing when I used to wear Adidas bottoms, Nike Tn trainers and a hoody and people crossed the street in anxiety- do you know what I did? I stopped wearing clothes that made people judge me. In fact I once dressed up in women’s clothing (if I’m allowed to say that such clothing is the sole possession of said group) as a laugh on a night out to get into a “ladies free entry” bar. Twenty lads did it, partly as a way to say why should women get in free- is this not a gender equal society? Partly to see the look on the bouncers face and so that we would be the centre of attention and we loved the attention. Respect to the bloke that unwittingly grabbed my arse from behind and had a heart attack when I fully bearded spun round with a “hello big boy” I was very flattered to think my derrière was ripe for the squeezing.
Yes there are those that suffer from a mental illness and we shouldn’t poke fun out of them, but I don’t think anyone saw that advert as derogatory towards people with such an illness, except those that maybe the advert wasn’t aimed at. A lot of people with said illnesses can make light of their problems and laugh at themselves but there are always those that seem a need to feel they have to protect a certain group all of the time. There is a fine line between funny and bad taste and I for one hope we continue to live in a world where that exists. Anyway congrats marketing team on the good work.
Tom, please scroll down and rad Dee Vansont’s post. If that doesn’t make you change your mind, you have no heart whatsoever.
The Ad was banned from UK TV because it was deemed potentially harmful to transwomen who want to lead their lives in dignity and without getting called out as a “stallion”.
The fact that it was funny, as with racist or other offensive humour, doesn’t justify it.
The fact that PaddyPower refuses to understand why the Ad is considered so unhelpful, and refuses to pull it from its online media after the TV ruling shows the company in a sad light.
Come on PaddyPower, you don’t want to be seen as a big bully do you?
So Tom you’re saying that as an Northern Irish sports fan who works for LGBT equality and is aware of the specific issues facing transgendered individuals that my Saturday viewing habits weren’t amongst those that the ad was aimed at and that I therefore shouldn’t have seen it as derogatory.
I shall be placing bets during the Cheltenham Festival, I am Irish afterall, but I shall not be doing so at Paddy Power, I’ll make the slightly longer walk to alternatives if I have to.
You targeted other people and put them at risk for your own benefit, and now you’re acting like the victims?
You are jerks and babies. Baby jerks.
Your boss failed to respond t this email but it explains why YOU should have pulled the advert
Dear Paddy,
Your advert shows no consideration for the reality of being transgendered and I think that if you have even the slightest inkling of what transgendered life is like you would never have entertained the concept of your transphobic advert. Unless of course you are totally devoid of compassion and understanding or you simply believe cheap publicity trumps vulnerable peoples’ right to get by as best they can. Before you try to defend your advert as a bit of harmless fun, let me tell you that some of the yobs that attend equestrian events and Ladies Days in particular are already more than willing to publicly abuse and harass transgendered people. While I’ve enjoyed several Ladies Days events I can also speak from bitter experience about how awful it can be to be targetted at a Ladies Day event simply because I’m transgendered and therefore not entitled to quietly enjoy a day out like any other citizen of our democracy.
A few years ago I attended a Ladies Day event and when I arrived in the bar to meet some friends I found a bunch of about ten guys had stationed themselves in the bar where they could watch every move. They’d been drinking for hours and were well on when I arrived and had already been mouthing off at my friends – a mixed group which included some transgendered people. I was almost immediately subjected to loud abuse and humiliating comments. I hadn’t so much as looked at or even been near these guys. The entire bar full of customers were looking at me as the object of the raucous verbal abuse and were very very uncomfortable. When I later went to use the Ladies, the abuse and shouting reached a crescendo. They shouted across the bar and pointed at me saying I was using the wrong bathroom, that I should turn left instead of right, wrong door and so on. One or two made to physically obstruct me or as they might have put it, to guide me.
As I walked on into the Ladies trying to maintain my composure the abuse was so loud the women inside the Ladies had effectively frozen. They were poised staring at the door apparently afraid there was a fight or at least some major disturbance going on because of the noise and shouting. The other women all got out fast – they clearly expected something like a lynch mob was about to burst in. I was left on my own- terrified and genuinely afraid to come out. I regained my composure and eventually walked out to another fresh wave of shouted abuse – all the while afraid this was about to get physical.
I’d spent as much time and money and probably a lot more effort tthan most to present a tasteful look on the day. No-one deserves to be embarrassed and humiliated on a day out much less be put in fear of physical harm from a bunch of drunken and insecure people. The other women should not have been scared and the children attending the event should not have been subjected to this display of bigotry, intolerance and downright threatening behaviour.
So please don’t claim your advert is all in good fun – I’ve been there and it’s not. Without your advert encouraging people to out and abuse transgender people like me, it happens anyway. You’re challenging more people to do it but you don’t say what they should do after they out one of us in public? What usually happens is these sort of people become like the dog who caught the bus it was chasing. They get confused, embarrassed and some will even fear that passersby think they were following us because they fancied us. What do you think is the best way a neanderthal is going to think they should prove to onlookers they have no interest in having anything to do with a Transgendered person?
Do you think this type of person is going to limit your suggested past time of “out the transgendered person” to Ladies Day? Far from it, I’m sure they’re already practising something that might not have occurred to them as acceptable behaviour in civilized society until your advert. You should also consider the fact that not all women are 100% “babes” so your advert has the potential to have many nontransgendered women be the subject of incredibly hurtful comments and public humiliation. Consider some woman dear to you being on the receiving end of what I endured just because she’s a tall size 18 or has a square jaw or any of the other of myriad body image concerns that gnaw away at a woman’s confidence.
I’ve been verbally abused (all too frequently) and physically assaulted (thankfully rarely) on the street on occasions over the years but nowhere has it ever occurred because a household brand with enormous media influence saw fit to bait latent bigots with the promise of making it fun to ‘track down’ and publicly humiliate trans people like me.
If you have evidence -other than the opinion of your advertising staff whom I doubt included any transgendered people, to suggest Transgender poeple are secure enough in society today to comfortably shrug off this sort of attention perhaps you’d care to share it. While you’re getting it together and happy to run the offensive advert while it garners you some controversial cheap publicity, please take a moment to review some numbers from a recent survey among the Irish Transgender population.
It found that on average 9.6% of all respondents had attempted suicide. Over 20% of Trans people have never told a single person about being Transgendered and 34% have only shared with other Transgendered people. These are the people you say are fair game to be identified and humiliated with who knows what consequences for their families, friends and livelihoods. I hope you don’t need me to join the dots between a traumatic outing and a Transgendered person’s already high predisposition to self harm and suicide.
But maybe hard research data and statistics are not your thing – which would be unusual for a betting operation. Perhaps you believe that unless we stay at home out of sight we are fair game and should be able to take a joke. Perhaps you feel it’s a good trade-off to play with peoples lives while encouraging bigotry to generate some controversial publicity so let me ask you this. If you’re so sure an advert like this is simply fun and any sane reasonable person should see it as such and not as a bigoted attack on one of the more vulnerable minority groups in society today, perhaps you’ll show the courage of your conviction that it’s harmless fun and run a similar advert where you simply substitute Christians and Muslims for Stallions and Mares?
So now Paddy you’ve heard from a transgendered person about the reality of life in Ireland and how it is already a huge personal risk to attend Ladies Day events without any inducement for intolerant bigots to make it worse. So don’t continue to assume or insist it’s an OK advert. It’s not and you’ve been told why based on research and first hand transgendered experience of Ladies Day events.
Do the decent thing – apologize for the unintended hurt even if you hadn’t the decency to pull the advert.
Dee Vansont
PS get in touch if you want that full survey or any other details about my transgendered experiences at Ladies Day events or elsewhere
Whoever downvoted this is a scumbag. Seriously. You don’t just “disagree” with other people’s lived experiences.
Wow – this is a very moving testimony.
PP be ashamed; be very ashamed.
So simply by showing trans folk it endangers them? Well i guess Will Smith or Alan Carr should never be the subject of an advertisement less it be regarded by the ridiculousness vocal political correct brigade as offensive. Poor decision but PP got more newspaper inches than they could have hoped. Doing publicity Ryanair style does work. Keep it up Paddy.
But it didn’t just show them. It outright encouraged people to play a guessing game with their identity, which is something that traditionally leads to hassle and sometimes physical abuse. Trans people know their own life experiences well, and this was the right decision.
If it’s just about showing trans people – why did “My Transsexual Summer” not receive complaints from the trans community? It wasn’t 100% perfect or accurate either.
Spoeaking as a transgendered person, can I just say that the advert was in my opinion a bit of fun, The witchhunt which followed has only served to highlight the advertisement, there are now stories on the BBC, and in the national press.
No one likes abuse but to suggest that this ad will cause more is in my opinion false. Transgendered issues are in the press a lot these days, and several programs have been on TV, My Transsexual Summmer for example.
A short humourous ad, will not do any more damage than these program are likely to do, possibly the opposite, it could have shown that we can laugh at yourselves. Sadly unlike myself a large number cannot, that makes me sad.
There’s a difference between something witty and clever that is sensitive to trans issues, and the equivalent of an advert showing Kentucky minstrels in blackface in the oval office at the Whitehouse with Barack Obama as President.
This was disgusting, and played into the very painful stereotypes applied to transgendered people. I’m sorry to say but I doubt you are transgendered because no transgendered person would take lightly the implication that they were really their nataly identified gender in disguise.
Gemma see my reply below.
Tom, you are really showing your ignorance with your comments here.
Trans women are not men in dresses, nor are they fetishists. They are WOMEN. Women who have to deal with incredible physical changes as well as bullying, stereotyping and discrimination, women who have probably lived their entire feminine lives being stared at and discriminated against. This advert is not funny because it validates these prejudices. You only have to look at many of the comments made about the video to see that people really do think trans people are “freaks” and seeing this advert released so publicly makes them feel that it is OK to have these views and that they are right. They are not, they are of course hideously wrong. We should be fighting to promote equality and stop oppression, not sending out messages that it’s hilarious to poke fun at particular groups within society. As it is, I have a perfectly good sense of humour, it is just a bit more intelligent than laughing at bullying.
Also, gender dysphoria is NOT a mental illness. Please get your facts right before posting your ill thought out comments. The same goes to Paddy Power, who really should have known better.
Gemma for your information, I have been a full time for 8 years and post op for 5, my grs was performed by james Bellringer at Charing Cross hospital, prior to that I saw Drs Lorimer and barrett at the GIC,and my endo is Dr Seal. Is that enough proof.
Internalised transphobia.
Because transgendered people are so heavily abused and marginalised, they regularly become doormats in this manner to be able to mentally cope with the level of rejection they experience.
It reminds me of the black police offer from Life on Mars who’d laugh along with all the black man jokes.
Please read the post I made at the bottom which shows how even a “Little ad” like this can cause great damage. Can you imagine any trans person going to Ladies night after this ad?
I am certainly not a doormat, I have had abuse in the past, but I am big enough to give it back, get over it and move on with my life.
How great for you that you’re not one of those poor, broken abuse victims. You must feel so superior to them for not caring about your own marginalisation.
Yes they were. Seeking approval of one organisation made up primarily of crossdressers is not good enough. Did they even see the final add?
You were shown the reaction by the wider trans community and you refused to respect it. Now you act like a spoiled child and in general very disrspectful towards trans people.
You singlehandedly made it so any transwoman would be uncomfortable going to Ladies’ Night, for fear of being hassled over being a “Stallion or a Mare”.
People need to read this for an understanding how why it was not just “offensive”, but dangerous:
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/02/20/comment-paddy-power-thinks-its-fun-to-play-spot-the-trans-lady-want-to-bet/
“The problem with “spot the trans lady” though is that, for one person in the game, it’s really not that fun. Ask any trans woman. Most of us, at some stage, have faced the humiliation of strangers playing it on us, (I use “on” as it’s something that’s done to you, not with you, and rarely with permission). You know it’s coming, as you walk down the street, like any other member of the public, on your way to buy milk. You see the curious look in a stranger’s eye, the excitement as they wonder if it could truly be – if they could really have found someone as laughable and as exotic as you. You note their lack of subtlety as they nudge the person next to them. They walk by. Seconds pass. And, no matter how you try to prepare for the certainty of what comes next, the phrase “Is that a tranny?” stabs like a dagger every time.
It was fear of those four words which kept me in the house for the best part of three years as a student. During this period, I spent huge amounts of money on taxis and I never walked anywhere if it could be avoided. 24 hour supermarkets allowed me to do my shopping at 3am. What a laugh life was.
Occasionally, if I was feeling bold, I would take public transport. I remember catching the bus once and noticing that the driver appeared to be trans. Halfway through the journey, we paused at the depot and she got off to the next driver board. As she walked along the side of the carriage, the people in front of me began pointing at her while laughing and chatting in loud, animated Spanish. Imagine my rage as the man next to me aimed a camera at her. I won’t bore you with details of my reaction but, needless to say, no photo was taken.
Paddy Power may think its advert is just a bit of harmless fun, but it feeds into an environment which dehumanises trans people, adding to the struggles of an already vulnerable minority. It’s not the first time the company has been accused of this either, and my source tells me that staff there are unhappy with the nastiness of recent marketing campaigns. Indeed, not only is this particular clip transphobic, it’s also sexist and personally insulting, referring to someone as a dog, in addition to “spot the stallions from the mares” horse comparisons.”
This advert was disgusting. I’m glad it was pulled, anyone who approves of it needs to take a good look at themselves. How you can incite hatred against the trans community so blatantly in an advert is beyond me, you are terrible people and should be ashamed of yourselves.
Mindless morons will always be mindless morons and no advert will alter that. If this person was verbally attacked in the way that she/he was, then those people should’ve been removed and dealt with. Most people will have watched this ad, and found it, as I did, mildly amusing and then get on with life. It certainly didn’t incite any hatred in me. Dollywitch, you keep saying, we don’t have a heart, well I do, and I also have a brain capable of thinking how much harm this advert did, and in my opinion, not much. The person you refer to stated that she had many enjoyable ladies days, which says that most people aren’t bothered in the slightest, it was an unfortunate incident, which should’ve been handled better.
Hi Rich, to elaborate that incident occurred on only the second time I attended a Ladies Day. It was hard to “get back in the saddle” and go to a couple more. I’m not sure how it could have been handled better. The head barman while I tried to get served had made a joke to other patrons at the bar about me being a fag so I don’t think he was going to rescue me from the Ladies. If I called the police I’d have been over-reacting. An assault only takes seconds and can be done from a distance with whatever missile comes to hand.
But yes I absolutely agree the vast majority of people are just great.
However there are still quite a few insecure bigots who need little encouragement to really turn nasty. As an example, Dublin Pride Day in 2011, a few hours after the parade through Dublin’s streets at about 5 in broad daylight on a city centre street, a friend and I were verbally abused and harrassed by 4/5 drunken men across the street. That was followed without warning by coins ricocheting like bullets off the shopfront beside us. No thought to either of us losing an eye or other pedestrians on the street. Badly shaken but unhurt we tried to find a cop – unsucessfully- but decided it didn’t warrant a 999. In any case there would have been no other witnesses as anyone who was near us cleared out fast afraid for their own safety.
In both these cases I was wearing a below-the-knee dress and attired as tastefully as any other woman my age. If the capital streets aren’t safe on Pride day then I think we’re a long way from being able to laugh at this advert inciting mindless outing of transgender people. It only takes one. unfortunate incident for some innocent to get hurt and it could even be a bystander.
I’m just trying to show life is already occasionally dangerous for transgendered people trying to live their lives and the norms and protections most people take for granted don’t always apply for us.
“and I also have a brain capable of thinking how much harm this advert did, and in my opinion, not much.”
It’s funny, because this is the view of people who are clearly less informed or intelligent than those who disagree with you.
It’s encouraging people to hassle transwomen(and any women with masculine features). How can that *not* cause harm?
Ah Dolly, you’re one of those that plays the intelligence card when someone doesn’t agree with you.
Dee, that is appalling behavior, even more so if the staff were involved and didn’t help you and I truly despair how some people are intollerant towards others for whatever reason. But a video of this nature does not entice normal people to suddenly become bigoted. The people you have encountered are already this way inclined and always will be. I really hope you don’t encounter this sort of behaviour again, but given the history of racism and the fact it still exists, I fear it’ll be a long hard battle in your lifetime to be accepted by everyone. Good luck.
I am pleased to see that this advert has been pulled, but girls we should move on, don’t we have a ladies day to be getting ready for, and it’s now our time to be ”pulled”
I can’t wait for the “Thick Irish” advert in the series? Or is that too offensive? If we can all laugh at out ourselves PP then this has to be done.
I was one of the people who complained to ASA/ASAI in protest at this advert. I’m not trans myself, but my best friend’s younger brother ‘came out’ a number of years ago as trans a number of years ago. Whilst it was a bit of a shock (in the sense that I had grown up since birth with him as a boy/man) I wanted to support her, and made it clear that was the case. She was regularly visiting a clinic in Charing Cross, close to where I live, and so we’d regularly meet up after his sessions to chat and have something to eat/drink. Despite the fact that we deliberately chose places that were either family-friendly or in areas I knew to be gay-friendly, I got to hear on every visit, some form of transphobic abuse.
The Paddy Power advert was exactly the sort of little bits of supposed ‘banter’ and ‘humour’ that my friend got. Local punters making little catcalls about which toilets my friend went into, even bar staff asking me very pointedly and with great emphasis “and what would the **man** like”. I felt sick, I felt angry, and I wasn’t even the subject of the abuse (mostly). I had to do my best to pretend I didn’t hear it, and to hope that my friend didn’t, but I’m sure she did.
Paddy Power must surely know how ill-judged this advert was now. I’m all for edgy humour, but when the ‘humour’ is purely relating to someone’s sexuality then that’s bigotry, and it’s amazing that an international company can be so stupid. As a few people have surmised – there is a suspicion that they’ve done this deliberately as a publicity stunt. Let’s hope that someone in PP has the balls to admit they’ve made a mistake this time.
What a shame TV3 in Ireland remained on the fence but it seems PP may have decided the law of diminishing returns applied in that the ad generated cheap publicity but the negative aspects outweighed the “benefits”. Well done to everyone who protested and complained or in any way supported the campaign against that bigoted advert.
Who knows an apology might even follow….. was that a pink porcine just sailed past my 12th floor window?
Dear Ms Vansont,
We refer to your complaint regarding the Paddy Power advertisement for “Ladies Day”. Please note that during the investigation process the advertiser decided to withdraw the advertisement from broadcast.
This concludes the matter under regulatory procedure. Thank you for your feedback.
Kind regards,
TV3 Complaints
It was outragious..no wonder trans people get treated as freaks…transwomen are women and the word ‘transgendered’ does not actually exsist..its always transgender. Do they think we are still living in the dark ages…how could they possibly imagin getting away with that!