BCF bat ad: Outdoors equipment company cleared over ‘implied racism’

Australia’s advertising regulator has given the green light to a controversial ad from outdoors equipment company BCF, in which it shows a man eating a bat.

An advertisement that highlights the virtues of being confined to Australia after someone “ate a bat” has been cleared by an official investigation, although some who scrutinised the commercial believed it incited contempt and ridicule of China and Chinese people.

The ad, for outdoor equipment company BCF, also depicts a caucasian man eating a bat burger.

One complaint highlighted in the new Ad Standards Bureau’s community panel report said: “This is ... scientifically inaccurate but my complaint is ... implied racism against China, even if the depiction is not a Chinese person.”

A still from a BCF Australia advertising campaign showing a man eating a bat. Picture: Youtube

BCF told the panel its ad was aimed at encouraging people to enjoy Australia and stay positive.

“Whilst eating a burger with a bat inside can be interpreted to reference the suspected origin of COVID-19 it is a lighthearted scenario intended to be humorous in nature and in no way references race or ethnicity,” BCF said.

A minority of panel members found the ad breached the section of Australian Association of National Advertisers’ code of ethics that prohibits discrimination or vilification.

“The minority of the panel noted that there has been an increase in negative community opinion towards China since the beginning of the Covid19 pandemic, and considered that this advertisement reinforces casual racism directed at Chinese people by implying that they are strange and that their strange habits (eating bats) caused a global pandemic.

“The minority considered that the advertisement does incite contempt and ridicule towards China and Chinese people and is a breach of the code,” the panel report said.

But the majority concluded “that showing a person eating a bat as part of a sandwich is a humorous reference to what was widely believed to be the source of the Covid19 pandemic — the animal to human transfer of the disease in a wildlife market in China.

“The majority considered that using such a reference was lighthearted and comedic, and was not discriminatory or vilifying towards Chinese people.”

The panel report said the majority noted that a Chinese person was not used in the advertisement, but “rather a man wearing a wide brimmed hat and holding a fishing rod — intended to be stereotypically Australian.”

A poll of more than 4000 people on The Daily Telegraph website found 86 per cent of respondents considered the complaints to be baseless.

The ad has been viewed more than 340,000 times on YouTube.

BCF declined to comment on the Ad Standards panel report.