Faggs Coffee may have to face an inquiry from the Advertising Standards Authority over their latest advertising campaign, which uses homophobic humour to distinguish the brand from other “pretentious” brands. The advertisement, featured on billboards in Auckland and Wellington and in magazines nationwide, features Kiwi bloke icon Gary McCormick drinking a cup of coffee under the lead line “Not as Ponsonby as the name suggests” with a tag “The great straight coffee – Faggs”. An article in today's Dominion Post detailing some of the complaints from members of the public to the Authority fails to capture the reasons why the billboards are offensive, and paints “members of the gay community” as being overly sensitive. Faggs Coffee marketing manager James Ford said that the intention of the billboards was not to cause offence, and will shortly be answering questions from Gaynz.com about the campaign.
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Friday, 19th September 2003 - 12:00pm