'Miriam' advert found offensive

A Tui beer advertising billboard proclaiming "There's nothing wrong with Miriam - Yeah Right" is seriously offensive, ridicules transgendered people and contradicts basic human rights, the Advertising Standards Complaints Board says.

A complaint was made that the advertisement indicated there was something "less than normal" about transgendered people and was offensive.

"Transgendered people want to live normal lives and this type of advertising reduces their chances of doing so," the complainant said.

Advertising agency M&C Saatchi said the billboard referenced the reality television show There's Something About Miriam, which screened on Sky.

"The show features six young English males competing for the affections of Miriam - an attractive model. Audience interest in the show is driven by a plot 'twist'. The young men are unaware that Miriam is, in fact, a transsexual.

"The show's appeal relies on the fact that the audience knows something about Miriam the contestants do not," the agency said.

"In the eyes of the contestants there is most certainly something wrong with Miriam. Quite simply she is not what they had been led to believe.

"This fact is implied in the name of the show - There's Something About Miriam."

The billboard highlighted this aspect, the agency said.

Advertiser DB Breweries said Tui's popular and well-known "Yeah Right" billboards were "generally hard-case, intelligent and irreverent and draw on topical issues in the public eye".

DB submitted the billboard was neither insulting nor degrading to transgendered people and would only be understood by viewers aware of the programme's plot.

A minority of the complaints board believed the advertisement was in keeping with the "Yeah Right" campaign and was irreverent, hard-case and topical.

But a majority of the board ruled the advertisement was seriously offensive and breached the code.

It said the advertisement undermined any attempt by transgendered people to "normalise their status", which contradicted human rights.

The complaint was upheld.

- NZPA