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MANILA – After Bench scored a social media win with netizens’ viral #painttheirhandsback campaign to remedy the brand’s apparently defaced pro-LGBT billboard, the brand has issued a statement saying the billboard was released that way in accordance with the Ad Standards Council. However, ASC has denied ordering the billboard to be painted over.
“The approved version with hands obscured is the billboard that Bench had printed and that now stands on EDSA. A digital mockup of the EDSA billboard showing the unobscured hands of (Vince) Uy and (Nino) Gaddi had been disseminated to press and is what likely led the public to assume the billboard had been defaced,” read the Bench statement posted on Style Bible.
The Bench statement came from Suyen Corporation Advertising and Promotions Manager Jojo Liamzon and was published on Style Bible on February 16. Suyen Corporation is the company that owns Bench. Three days before, artist Rob Cham and writer Thysz Estrada had initiated the #painttheirhandsback campaign. The campaign quickly went viral, as many netizens were upset by the seemingly defaced billboard featuring Preview Creative Director Vince Uy and his boyfriend Nino Gaddi with their hands obscured.
The controversial billboard is part of Bench’s February campaign called “Love All Kinds of Love”. The other billboards in the series showed actress Gloria Romero with her grandson Chris, engaged couple Solenn Heussaff and Nico Bolzico, and makeup artist Ana Paredes with her girlfriend interior designer Carla Peña.
On the other hand, Ad Standards Council said they did not order the billboard to be painted over, but that Bench put it up without clearance, according to a report on Rappler. “We had discussion with them particularly because they put up the billboards without clearance to display. If at all, they were given approval to produce it. If ever there is violation, the violation is more procedural than conceptual,” Rappler quoted ASC Executive Director Mila Marquez.
Meanwhile, Liamzon was quoted on Pacifiqa as saying the decision to cover the hands was due to the ASC. “From the beginning, we were advised not to include the element of holding hands in the actual billboard,” he said.
Before Bench and ASC released their statements, some people thought the billboard had been vandalized, others thought the ASC had ordered it painted over, and some believed it was a marketing ploy by Bench.
Even after Bench released its statement, questions remain, as Ed Biado points out on Manila Standard Today. Why was the paint job haphazardly done? Would ASC have approved the billboard showing the hands of the couple? “Does that mean that everything was premeditated and Bench’s intention was really to release the defaced image, knowing fully well that there will be reactions from the public and the media?” Biado asks.
Despite the conflicting statements from Bench and ASC, those who participated in the campaign believe that it was more about the message than the ad. “We took what could have been just people complaining about this billboard, (a headline on Rappler: Bench Billboard angers netizens) and turned it into something to laugh about, to have fun with, something we can use to tell people, ‘Hey, don’t do that. That’s bad. Now go to your room and think about what you did.’ LGBT people deserve better,” Cham said in a Facebook post.
