Suitsupply ‘gay posters’ destroyed throughout the Netherlands

Posters showing gay men destroyed

Suitsupply isn’t unknown for controversial advertising. Well their new poster campaign features two gay men – one poster is two of the men kissing one another and the other is a man in swimming shorts, being touched by another guy in a business suit. Turns out that the Netherlands wasn’t too keen on this new advertising.

Lots of these posters were destroyed (the exact number wasn’t disclosed by the company) once they were put up in bus shelters around the country. The same images were also placed in stores and other countries around the world. As a result of this new campaign, Suitsupply lost tens of thousands of social media followers.

Why has the Netherlands kicked off!?

Well, we’ve already have one rant about sexist advertising in the Netherlands. But this is rather weird, especially if blatantly sexist advertising slips through the net. Heaven forbid 2 gay men. The company is shocked too, as they didn’t expect such a reaction here. People were concerned in the Netherlands on how they were going to explain the advert to their children and why it was just so out there. Also to do with 2 men kissing not being appropriate.

I guess any media exposure is good exposure (maybe apart from the fact they’ve lost so many followers). But Suitsupply might have seriously underestimated homophobia in the Netherlands.

Wider problem

Check out the article I linked in the paragraph above – if advertising with men looking up women’s skirts and a pussy cat (yeah you know the score), in-between a half naked woman’s personal region (keep it clean Emma, keep it clean), is acceptable, then why not 2 gay men? It shines a light on whether the Dutch tolerance really is tolerant.

What do you think about this news? Do you think the advertising was appropriate or not? Are people just small minded? Let us know in the comments!

 

 

Emma Brown
Emma Brown
A familiar face at DutchRevew. Emma arrived in Holland in 2016 for a few weeks, fell in love with the place and never left. Here she rekindled her love of writing and travelling. Now you'll find her eating stroopwafels in the DutchReview office since 2017.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Yes, people are just small minded. Suit Supply is well-known for its in-your-face suggestive ads. When I first moved to the NL, they had a suited man sliding down giant barely-clad breasts. People talked about it a lot (which is what they wanted) but no one destroyed anything. If you can’t figure out how to talk to your children about gay relationships in this day and age, I suggest you move somewhere less secular, like rural America (I can say it-I’m American).

  2. I have nothing against gay people or homosexuality but there is a poster of this stuff on every fucking bus stop every 100 hundred meters. It’s insane. I would probably get just as annoyed by any other company spamming their adds like this, it’s just that I don’t need to see 2 men kissing every 100 hundred meters just as I don’t need to see a straight couple kissing every 100 hundred meters. It’s simple as that.

    I live in the center of Amsterdam by the way.

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