Is this acceptable representation of young people?
The London Gypsy and Traveller Unit are today protesting outside Channel 4. Their beef with the media giant is that their recent campaign advertising a news series of the - arguably already exploitative - Big Fat Gypsy Wedding reverses years of anti-stigma work by presenting young members of the community in way that emphasises and mocks their ethnic characteristics and lifestyle.
When I first saw one of these adverts - a huge billboard looming over passing traffic on Old Street - I couldn’t believe my eyes. I don’t know the programme, but it seemed instantly to me that I was being presented with a spectacle intended to amuse or amaze. The huge but cryptic (to someone who doesn’t have their finger on the pulse of TV) words across the face of a perfectly normal looking freckled boy read ‘Bigger. Fatter. Gypsier’. The first two words just seem inappropriate. The last is inconceivable in today’s world. In short, the advert presents a boy’s recognisable face and asks us to make a huge number of assumptions about him based on his being a member of an ethnic minority. No other context is offered.
Another version of the advert shows two young girls dressed in colourful and revealing outfits as if ready to go out. It’s the kind of photo that teenage girls are bound to take - proud of how they look and perhaps not savvy enough to think about what assumptions others might make upon seeing such photographs. Of course irrelevant if you are only keeping them as memories or sharing with friends. Less relevant nowadays when distant acquaintances and complete strangers might come across photos on Facebook - and this is an increasing worry for parents. No one, however, would reasonably expect such photos to be picked up by a reputable media company and blown up to massive proportions on billboards around the country.
The London Gypsy and Traveller Unit mocked up an advert that uses a similar format, changing ‘Bigger, Fatter, Gypsier’ for ‘Bigger, Blingier, Blacker’. Their argument is that one can clearly see that such a campaign would be unacceptable - hinged as it is on unrepresentative stereotyping by race - but that it is actually no different than the BFGW campaign’s approach. I would go one step further and say that if they wanted to create an advert just as shockingly exploitative and unacceptable they should have used a child. No matter what release forms Channel 4 might have from the families of the children in the campaign - and I would be surprised if there was not a financial incentive to sign - there should clearly be an element of judgement by the broadcasters and advertising company as to what is socially and morally acceptable. Whatever the aspirations of these young people and the opportunities available to them in the future, it will be a long time before they are anything other than ‘bigger, fatter and gypsier’ to their peers.
Matt Daw
Projects Manager, PhotoVoice
A message from The London Gypsy and Traveller Unit
We are protesting outside the head office of channel 4 on Tues 14th at 12.30 – please come if you can or write and complain to the advertising standards agency – details below.
It would not be acceptable to stereotype other ethnic groups or to use children in this way.
Gypsies and Travellers say to channel 4: We have had enough of your big fat mockumentary
“These adverts are stigmatising us by the words and pictures they use. This programme is turning us into something that we are not’’
“These posters are insulting and degrading. It makes me sick to my stomach to use children like this. It’s a wrong portrayal of our community and my children are hiding in school because of it’’
(Members of the Hackney Traveller community)
If you agree then please speak out.
Complain to the advertising standards agency www.asa.org.uk
Also complain directly to channel 4 at www.channel4.com or ring 0845 076 0191
Join us this afternoon - Tuesday 14th Feb 12.30 pm - to protest outside the head office of Channel 4. We will be delivering a letter of complaint and hope to get some media coverage.
Meet at 11am at LGTU 6 Westgate Street, Hackney E8 3RN
Or Meet at 12.30pm outside Channel 4
124 Horseferry Road, SW1P 2TX
Nearest underground : St James Park / Westminster / Victoria
OR 24 Bus