In a statement sent to the fashion website Style Bible, Bench made it clear that the billboard along EDSA-Guadalupe showing creative director Vince Uy and boyfriend Niño Gaddi holding hands was not defaced as initially observed by netizens.
Quoting advertising and promotions manager Jojo Liamzon, Style Bible reported that the gay couple's hands have been blackened by Bench as the brand's way of complying with the material it submitted to the Ad Standards Council (ASC).
The image approved by ASC had the couple's hands blurred.
“When billboard images for Bench’s ‘Love All Kinds of Love’ campaign were submitted to the governing body (Ad Standards Council), the company received concern over the photo of Vince Uy and his arm around partner Niño Gaddi, hands clasped in a show of affection. Prior, the governing body had rejected photos of the couple looking lovingly at one another, citing ‘traditional Filipino family values’ as a reason,” Liamzon said.
“The approved version with hands obscured is the billboard that Bench had printed and now stands on EDSA. A digital mockup of the EDSA billboard showing the unobscured hands of Uy and Gaddi had been disseminated to press and is what likely led the public to assume the billboard has been defaced.”
Liamzon explained that Bench decided to display the billboard with the blackened hands “because the company believes that its message was still intact.”
The message he was referring to is “that of well-represented diversity, and the message that same-sex relationships are just as substantial and valid as heterosexual romantic love and familial love.”
“While the message has been compromised to an extent, the most important thing is that at least, for the duration that the billboards are up, the voices, lives and loves of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community are unavoidable and undeniable on an avenue Filipinos from all walks of life cross every day,” he said.
Following the controversy, Liamzon said Bench is proposing that the current billboard be replaced with the original image showing the gay couple’s hands.
Last week, Filipino netizens started a social media campaign called #PaintTheirHandsBack as they digitally altered the Bench billboard to make sure that the gay couple’s hands were back where they belong.
source: www.abs-cbnnews.com
