Taken from Pink News

 

 

A television advert for bookmakers Paddy Power has been suspended from broadcast over claims it is offensive to the trans community.

The advert, which can be seen below, shows a number of women at a typical horse racing event. Dubbed over the footage is a commentator trying to identify which are trans women and which are not.

The decision to pull the advert was announced earlier today.

In a statement issued from Paddy Power, they said: “We were surprised and disappointed to learn today of the decision by the British TV advertising regulator along with television broadcasters to suspend our “Lady’s Day” commercial from airing in the UK.

“This decision is especially frustrating given that 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, we reached out to leading UK transgender group, The Beaumont Society, for feedback on the script.”

The Beaumont Society stated 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’s at race meeting where these day’s a large number of cross dresser’s make a day of it”

They added: “Furthermore, we exclusively 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’.”