Vegans go on the offensive over advert starring Lee Lin Chin, a bowl of kale and a flame thrower

IF YOU’RE looking for a definition of political correctness gone mad, look no further than this attack on Lee Lin Chin’s cheesy advert.

Lee Lin Chin has angered the vegans.

OPINION

IF YOU’RE looking for a definition of political correctness gone mad, have a read of this complaint about an advert for Australian lamb.

The action movie spoof starring ‘Commander’ Lee Lin Chin and ‘Lambassador Sam Kekovich’ depicts a fictional quest to save Aussie expats from going without the iconic barbecue dish on Australia Day, with a military swat team launching ‘Operation Boomerang’.

It’s cheesy, over-the-top and pokes fun at anyone who doesn’t embrace the meat-eating lifestyle — including a bearded expat in the New York hipster enclave of Brooklyn, who informs the fictional military operatives that he is now a vegan.

The repatriation mission is aborted, as Commander Chin shakes her head and exclaims “vegans!” while her companion takes a flame thrower to a bowl of kale and tofu on the coffee table.

Some of the nation’s more sensitive plant eaters interpreted this as an incitement to violence, and the Meat and Livestock Australia advert attracted a deluge of complaints — 376 for the television ad, and 241 for an online version and 208 for a social media version, making it one of the most complained about ads of the year to date.

“This ad is offensive to vegans,” one complainant wrote. “In the ad a vegan’s house is lit on fire while the vegan is still inside because he won’t eat lamb.”

The complainant added that a vegan friend’s child had watched the ad and “became fearful that people would burn their house down.”

Another dubbed the advert a “vilification of people for their lifestyle choices and beliefs”, concluding: “It’s not funny and I’m sick of it. It’s free-to-air bullying that singles out people who don’t eat meat as anti-Australian and ripe for ridicule and, apparently, burning of furniture.”

Others called the ad “exclusivist and discriminatory”, “very violent and hate filled” and alleged that it “incites violence against a group of people”. It was also deemed “culturally inappropriate and offensive to indigenous Australians” for its use of the term “boomerang”.

“At one point in the ad, people burst into an apartment to bring an Australian home to eat lamb and he tells them he is vegan, so they set fire to his apartment with flame throwers,” one complainant wrote. “This will encourage other meat-eaters to act violently towards vegans and sends a message saying that veganism is wrong and non-acceptable.”

Whew. Can everyone just take a few calming, organic breaths?

No vegan hipsters were harmed in the making of this production.

THE VERDICT

For its part, Meat and Livestock Australia argued that the reasonable viewer would understand “the comical and fanciful nature” of the kale-torching scene, and “would not perceive it to be an act of bigotry or the incitement of hatred towards members of the community with particular dietary preferences ... The advertisement is not to be taken seriously and its content is not a means of vilifying or defaming vegans or vegetarians.”

And it was at pains to emphasise that the target of the flamethrower was “a bowl of kale and tofu on a coffee table which is not located in proximity to the character”.

The Advertising Board of Australia agreed, dismissing the complaints and noting that “the overall tone and theme of the advertisement is intended to be humorous”.

It said the advert was “clearly a depiction of a fantasy situation” with “exaggerated and unrealistic” scenes that suggested “an evacuation strategy about to happen ... not depictions of violence.”

The Board also said that “most members of the community would be familiar” with the origins the boomerang, an indigenous traditional weapon, and its colloquial meaning as “something that is expected to be returned”.

RUBBER GIRLS

But Lee Lin Chin was outdone by Ultratune’s “Rubber Girls”, who starred in a series of Ultratune adverts that drew a combined 781 complaints.

Laura Lydall and Parnia Porsche — of Candyman mansion fame — star in the controversial ads, which have been slammed for depicting women as “vacuous, stupid and dimwitted”.

One of the ads shows two women drive their car over a railway crossing and stop on the tracks.

Despite warning lights flashing, the two women stay in their car screaming as a train approaches.

The screen goes black, and the sound of a crash takes over — only to then reveal the two women walking away unharmed from the burning wreckage.

Psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg last week called the ads “inherently sexist” and “demeaning to women”, prompting the models to issue a statement defending their performance and accusing their critics of “publicly bullying and vilifying us on the basis of our appearance”.

While it found that the ad was not exploitative or demeaning to women, noting that the pair walked away from the crash in a confident “Charlies Angels” type manner, the Board upheld the complaint about discrimination or vilification on the basis of gender.

“Overall, the Board considered that the advertisement presents women as ridiculous — suggesting that they don’t look after their cars, react passively to breaking down, and are unaware of their surroundings,” it said.

Complaints about two other Ultratune ads — featuring the two models dressed in latex with the tagline “Into Rubber?”— were dismissed.

The car repair chain has been courting controversy with its ads since 2014, when rubber-clad models made their debut for the brand, prompting a deluge of complaints. Frankly, it’s all getting a bit boring and predictable.

Of all the complaints to make their top 10 list (of which Lee Lin and Ultratune accounted for six), only three were upheld.

An ad for horror film The Conjuring 2 was found to be too spooky for general viewing, and was pulled from air last month, while lingerie maker Honey Birdette was chastised for window displays deemed too risqué.

Complaints about a lesbian kiss in Medibank Private’s advert were also dismissed.

Disclaimer: the author is a lapsed vegetarian who enjoys kale and burgers in equal measure.

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Originally published as Vegans go on the offensive over advert starring Lee Lin Chin, a bowl of kale and a flame thrower