Guinness pulls advert after Immigrant Council complaint

03-02-2019 08:42AM #1

Proper order.
1. The drink is black.
2. ‘You Don’t Pick A Side. Your Grandparents Have Done That Already’.

The. Most. Racist. Line. Ever.

Well done to the Immigrant Council for astutely finding this offence.

Guinness to pull Six Nations ads over immigrant offence concerns

Guinness is to pull a number of billboard adverts put up ahead of Ireland’s rugby match against England after admitting they may cause “offence or confusion” to immigrants or families with diverse backgrounds.

The Six Nations ads, which drew criticism from the Immigrant Council of Ireland, say: “You Don’t Pick A Side. Your Grandparents Have Done That Already.”

The Immigrant Council of Ireland took to Twitter to call for the company to go “back to the drawing board” adding that it “can see the sentiment, but it doesn’t celebrate the strength of the Irish team (& wider society) or the huge benefit our diversity brings.”

A number of players on the Ireland team are from overseas or descended from immigrants.

Guinness, which sponsors the Six Nations tournament, said it would replace the billboards at a number of locations around Dublin within days, the Times, Ireland edition reported on Saturday.

“The billboard was meant to show the competitive nature of the Guinness Six Nations,” a spokeswoman for parent company Diageo said.

“It was to convey the passion with which people follow the team they support, be it because of where they were born, where they live or familial ties as well as the heightened intensity of these rivalries due to the proximity and history of the competing countries.

“We regret if the billboard caused offence or confusion. This was absolutely not our intention.”

The company’s spokeswoman said diversity and inclusion are core values, and pointed to its work with the Immigrant Council of Ireland on diversity programmes.

“We are grateful to them for the feedback,” she said. “We believe their point is a strong one and we will swap out the advertising for other copy next week.”
The Immigrant Council of Ireland said “fair play to Guinness for recognising the strength diversity provides the Irish team and its supporters and reconsidering their posters.”

Greyfox · 03-02-2019 08:52AM

More pc nonsense, people need to get a life

biko · 03-02-2019 09:03AM

Whenever someone"takes to Twitter" you know there's going to be headline news.
Journalists loves browsing Twitter for a bit of drama.

ParkRunner · 03-02-2019 09:06AM

How is that racist?? You’ve added in the connection to the colour of the drink and what the ad says. If the same words were used on a Budweiser or Carlsberg yellow background would that cause major offence also?

Guinness is black, their ads are always going to be black. This ad was promoting the six nations and the passion between the supporters of the different nations, no matter what their ethnic background is.

Pkiernan · 03-02-2019 09:06AM

The product itself is racist as it shows a white minority rising above a dark majority.

Needs to be banned.

SoundsRight · 03-02-2019 09:16AM

Now we'll have ads with women in burkas cheering on the team. To think people on this quango get paid for this idiocy.

The Bishop Basher · 03-02-2019 09:17AM

The sooner nature wipes us all out so the world can start again the better..

Anyone with a twitter account should be first.

screamer · 03-02-2019 09:20AM

I dunno how we’ll ever overcome racism if people keep picking out exceptions.... were it an add for milk with the same tag line there’s be no “offense”. By picking it out and highlighting it, the dis-unity continues, and just keeps the racist air going. It’s all about perception, pity the permanently offended don’t perceive how their actions are actually doing the total opposite to harmonizing society.

gozunda · 03-02-2019 09:21AM

Fuaranach wrote:

"You Don’t Pick A Side. Your Grandparents Have Done That Already’."

The. Most. Racist. Line. Ever.

Ahh ffs. More pc snowflake whataboutary.
Everyone has grand parents not just 'the. privileged. white. elite' (sic)

If there ever was an argument against point scoring immigration rubbish it's this type of opportunistic bs.

Graces7 · 03-02-2019 09:24AM

Guinness knew fine well what the reaction would be; a great advertising boost :rolleyes:

Benny Biscotti · 03-02-2019 09:25AM

What ever about the reasonings it's good that they are pulled. Walking around Dublin and you are smothered in Guiness or Paddy Power rugby ads. You'd swear this country has nothing else to it.

dav3 · 03-02-2019 09:26AM

If people have differing opinions on what the ad means, it’s probably not very good anyway. It has people talking about the brand though.

‘Social media has lit up...’
‘One twitter user commented...’

etc, etc.

Poor form OP. It must be killing you inside not going on a rant against ‘leftists’. I’m not sure you’re able to pull off sarcasm. 2/10

Atoms for Peace · 03-02-2019 09:28AM

I now just automatically ignore any issues brought up by the like of the immigrant council, pavee point etc., bunch of professional belly achers living off the tit of the tax payers.

mikemac2 · 03-02-2019 09:29AM

Graces7 wrote: »

Guinness knew fine well what the reaction would be; a great advertising boost :rolleyes:

I read this in a Donegal accent

Richard Hillman · 03-02-2019 09:32AM

SoundsRight wrote: »

Now we'll have ads with women in burkas cheering on the team. To think people on this quango get paid for this idiocy.

Women cheering on a men's team??? The misogyny is real.

It needs to be a diverse LBGTXYZ approved Crowd cheering on a mixed team that includes disabilities. And it needs to be a non-alcoholic Guinness and the Guinness needs to be brewed outside of Ireland, so not to give off a racist dog whistle.

ShooterSF · 03-02-2019 09:39AM

Yeah bloody typical of those lefty pc types to have nothing better to be doing but foaming at the mouth over an advert, demanding people boycott the advertiser!

Oh no wait, wrong advert...

ParkRunner · 03-02-2019 09:49AM

Richard Hillman wrote: »

Women cheering on a men's team??? The misogyny is real.

It needs to be a diverse LBGTXYZ approved Crowd cheering on a mixed team that includes disabilities. And it needs to be a non-alcoholic Guinness and the Guinness needs to be brewed outside of Ireland, so not to give off a racist dog whistle.

That game would be impossible to ref :-) would they have the balls to call an offside or a knock forward? The game would have to end a draw too, with everyone getting a person of the match award

imme · 03-02-2019 09:53AM

Stupid ad, not a racist one.

This nonsense is getting worse.

malinheader · 03-02-2019 09:54AM

PC being thrown around again. Suppose this immigrant council has to make some kind of noise so people know they exist. Probably looking for more funds.

machiavellianme · 03-02-2019 09:54AM

Pkiernan wrote: »

The product itself is racist as it shows a white minority rising above a dark majority.

Needs to be banned.

Only for a few minutes. Then the dark majority vanishes.

Johnnyhpipe · 03-02-2019 09:54AM

Imagine living a life where this type of nonsence upsets you..

imme · 03-02-2019 10:07AM

Johnnyhpipe wrote: »

Imagine living a life where this type of nonsence upsets you..

The as was not racist but the company pulled it because someone told them it was.

Everything is racist now.

Even when it isn't.

Dyr · 03-02-2019 10:07AM

Hard earned tax money being pit to good use

gozunda · 03-02-2019 10:08AM

malinheader wrote: »

PC being thrown around again. Suppose this immigrant council has to make some kind of noise so people know they exist. Probably looking for more funds.

Guinness according to the article
"pointed to its work with the Immigrant Council of Ireland on diversity programmes"

The 'Immigrant council' "can see the sentiment, (of the advert) but it doesn’t celebrate the strength of the Irish team (& wider society) or the huge benefit our diversity brings.”

:rolleyes:

I hope Guinness drops their sanctimonous arses

mfceiling · 03-02-2019 10:10AM

Just because you are offended doesn't mean you are right.

mikemac2 · 03-02-2019 11:10AM

Johnnyhpipe wrote: »

Imagine living a life where this type of nonsence upsets you..

Quangos have to give press releases and keep relevant or they lose funding and people lose cushy 100k jobs

If Ireland was paradise for immigrants the council would still exist and be complaing over something. I doubt they even care about the issues they express outrage over

Augme · 03-02-2019 11:18AM

I really don't get the ad at all. From my understanding it is saying your grandparents decided who you would follow and support. Guinness can't be stupid enough to be pushing that message for the rugby team.

Discodog · 03-02-2019 11:29AM

Augme wrote: »

I really don't get the ad at all. From my understanding it is saying your grandparents decided who you would follow and support. Guinness can't be stupid enough to be pushing that message for the rugby team.

The Guinness Clear campaign is pretty stupid

dav3 · 03-02-2019 11:42AM

Augme wrote: »

I really don't get the ad at all. From my understanding it is saying your grandparents decided who you would follow and support. Guinness can't be stupid enough to be pushing that message for the rugby team.

They're not, they know exactly what they're doing. Guinness is Diageo. Diageo is a multinational corporation with over 30,000 employees and revenue of over €13 billion per year. The have entire office floors, if not buildings, dedicated to advertising.
Every six nations we're subjected to this carry-on by certain drinks companies and bookies. Every year people take the bait. It does appear to get particularly crazy every time we play England though. It's always followed by an oops didn't mean to statement after.

If people keep starting these threads, if newspapers keep running the story, they'll keep doing it.
Although some people are just using this story to have a rant about immigrants, the immigrant council and the 'pc brigade' this time, rather than taking a step back and observing what is actually going on.

Renegade Mechanic · 03-02-2019 11:56AM

Fuaranach wrote: »

The. Most. Racist. Line. Ever.

Is it though? Really?

conorhal · 03-02-2019 12:08PM

dav3 wrote: »

They're not, they know exactly what they're doing. Guinness is Diageo. Diageo is a multinational corporation with over 30,000 employees and revenue of over €13 billion per year. The have entire office floors, if not buildings, dedicated to advertising.
Every six nations we're subjected to this carry-on by certain drinks companies and bookies. Every year people take the bait. It does appear to get particularly crazy every time we play England though. It's always followed by an oops didn't mean to statement after.

If people keep starting these threads, if newspapers keep running the story, they'll keep doing it.
Although some people are just using this story to have a rant about immigrants, the immigrant council and the 'pc brigade' this time, rather than taking a step back and observing what is actually going on.

Oh I think people ARE taking step back and asking what the hell is actually going on here, and the answer that's becoming more and more clear to people is that the agenda pushers of the Immigrant Counsel of Ireland are attempting to shame people for their cultural identity if not outright deny one to people.
People are slowly waking up to the fact that this isn't just about an ad, it's about the fact that this Chuck Feeney funded quango has amassed a hell of a lot of influence and access to government and everybody runs scared of them.
These unelected quangocrats are the very last people you want shaping social policy, but they get invited to every policy meeting going and tend to be the loudest voice in the room once there.
Unless you're determined that we slide down the intersectional rabbit hole that America has, which has made every aspect of social cohesion impossible and every difference divisive, we need this crowd to be kicked out of the conversation because they're societal poison dressed up 'caring progressives'.
Certainly people need to start pushing back against these eejits and telling the to piss off, we're not listening to you any more.

Guinness pulls advert after Immigrant Council complaint

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