Argentinian Bank Ad Promotes “Change”

29 thoughts on Argentinian Bank Ad Promotes “Change”

1. I dunno. I can think of a lot of ways a company can suggest the idea of change without inviting the ire of the genderpolice. Sure, they’re using a transgendered person to sell their product, but it says a lot about who they perceive their audience to be and what values they believe that audience holds. That a company would be comfortable using this kind of imagery in a positive sense, and believe it positive enough to persuade consumers, seems pretty revolutionary. Like it or not, capitalism is the factory we make our sausage in. Today, I think I’ll just enjoy the sausage rather than think about how it was made.

2. Eh. I’m on the fence about it, it’s really really iffy.
   Things you mentioned, plus others. The whole “Really a Man” line makes me cringe.

3. By the way — something that’s mistranslated or left out: when he gives her the sculpture of the ballerina, he says “la hice yo,” [i might be spelling this wrong]– I made it myself. At the frame where the subtitles read: “Have it.” I find that pretty touching.

   Sure, it’s only crumbs. Old cis men should apologize to younger trans women, who should be appropriately touched and grow dewy-eyed, and then they should all go to the bank and take out loans together for their mobile hair salons. Clearly it’s not a sufficient gesture, and is also “can i has my good progressive cookie now?”

   As insufficient as it may be, is it significant that it opens a door? At least in that it tells trans people that even if they are unable to change the info on their DNI (which is probably pretty hard, knowing what I know of Argentine bureaucracy), the bank will respect hir gender identity, just as it respects the identity of the traditional old man?

   Someone who is trans probably has better insight into this, including into the difficulties presented by official identity documents.

4. i felt like the ad trivialized the whole “we’re all equal thing.” so yeah, i totally have mixed feelings on this one.

5. I think it says something good about Argentine society that the people running this bank thought a trans-positive ad would gain them customers. I mean, if some agency proposed this for Citibank, I’m sure the top executives would say “omg if this runs everyone will think we’re a queer bank and take out all their money”.

6. I’m trans, and I liked it for the most part. The fact that it’s for a bank, well… Yeah. And I’m with you Jill on the day when trans people are just people and not the subjects of “a very special episode” or a progressive cause or “cookie-bait” but right now… I guess I find joy in what I can.

7. It’s kind of nice to see us on TV where we’re not a) being killed, b) being a psycho killer, or c) played for laughs. It may be a decent model for people who might have internally overcome their bigotry but are embarrassed about making overtures to the people they were bigoted against. I like that it doesn’t get into the surgery issue, which is supposed to be this big damn deal for trans folk. But eh. It’s not exactly a watershed event. I’m not wild about it.

8. I think it says something good about Argentine society that the people running this bank thought a trans-positive ad would gain them customers.

   That’s a really good point. Agreed that the fact this could be used as an advertisement is indeed heartening. And agreed with Mireille that joy has come where you can find it, even if it’s not perfect.

9. It’s a commercial, so the message is always going to be, “Buy this.”

   Maybe as a ciswoman I’m missing something, but in a 60 second spot, it seems like the director has two choices: 1) either say “Look at this trans woman!” in a really obvious way, like they did, or 2) just include a trans woman as a woman, which so many people would miss that it wouldn’t further the goal of representation. Am I missing something?

   So for a commercial – 60 seconds to persuade you to part with your money – that seemed to be about as good as one could hope for. I thought it was kind of nice.

10. Pingback: Cash In Your Prejudice at the Transgender Bank! - The Sexist - Washington City Paper

11. It is meaningful to say to potential customers who are trans that they’ll be respected. However, this advertisement probably wasn’t created primarily with trans customers in mind, right? The real message here, as I read it, is that this bank is a Good Tolerant Bank that you can feel good about banking at because they share your values. To the vast majority of (cisgendered) customers, this is because the bank is Nice to The Others, therefore by banking with them you can also express your Niceness to Others, in this case represented by a trans woman.

    Although I think it’s great — Great Great Great! — to promote tolerance and not being cruel to trans people and for that to make it into a mainstream ad, as a trans woman I can’t help but still feel a little objectified by this ad. Not in a negative way, like when someone objectifies one of us all the way into a corpse (RIP Angie) or something else gross, but as a proper object of liberal sympathy and feelings of righteousness.

    I actually meant to post this ad a month or so back when it started showing up in various blogs, and I wanted to compare it to this IKEA ad from 2006:

    OK, so neither of these commercials is perfect. The IKEA commercial is very focused around surgery, and the bank commercial avoids that all-too-common trope, as has already been pointed out. I’m never a huge fan of surgery being positioned as this super-central universal thing in trans people’s lives, but on the other hand… it is an extremely important moment and life event for so many trans people (or could be if trans health care were more widespread and covered). The bank commercial, on the other hand, has a trans woman who’s a hairdresser. Which is probably the #3 most stereotypical occupation for trans women after sex worker and nightlife entertainer. That’s not such a big deal (what’s wrong with doing hair? nothing), but on top of that the commercial subtly uses some cues that get used OVER and over in this kind of scenario. When the old man says “but the ID card says you are a man” or words to that effect, the trans woman says “Yes.” When she says that, she drops her voice to a lower register — it’s very clear if you are aware of it, and how can I not be? It’s a classic “no look, this person really IS trans” device, it’s just more subtle in this case than on Howard Stern or Saturday Night Live (where Blake Lively of Gossip Girl recently portrayed a trans woman this way, opposite James Franco… horrors). On the other hand, the IKEA commercial avoids this stuff by not having any spoken lines, but it also feels less reliant on stereotypes in general. It’s a little objectifying (did they need to show her wearing just a bra?) but not egregiously… and it probably falls overall more towards the trope of the “omg I didn’t know you were trans SURPRISE” narrative than the “poor trans woman you should feel sorry for” one. I don’t think either of these commercials fall too far into those traps, but they’re still there, lurking on the sidelines.

    All of that — surgery, stereotyped occupations, stupid voice tricks — certainly conspire to keep these commercials from being totally perfect, maybe a slightly unattainable goal. But there’s something more interesting to talk about, which is the subject-object relationship. As a trans woman, I feel like the IKEA commercial is more from the point of view of the trans woman going through a monumentally important phase of her life — surgery, and being able to get rid of old legal/bureaucratic baggage, and moving on with her life. It’s very powerful for anyone who relates to that, especially for those of us who relate to that through being trans. And it kind of posits it all as a certain kind of normal. Just like any surgery patient she’s recovering and getting flowers and getting back on her feet, etc. Of course it’s all in the service of “redecorate the rest of your life BY BUYING OUR CRAP” but then, it’s a commercial and the other one is “we’re liberal like you SO GIVE US YOUR MONEY.”

12. Oh yeah, and what the Washington City paper said:

    When the old dude gives her the ballerina in the ad, the music swells triumphantly, and the woman is all like, “Para me? You shouldn’t have.” Had this happened in real life, she probably would have gone back into her hair salon, put the ballerina in a drawer somewhere, and said to herself: “That old dude will seriously never, ever get it.”

    … reminded me of something else I wrote about this in my unpublished draft a month back. Do we think that viewers see this situation from the trans woman’s side? We don’t know exactly what this old man did to her, but apparently it was something bad and cruel and transphobic, right? It’s significant enough that this is a story worth telling, so I’m assuming it wasn’t just that he ignored her when they passed each other on the street. So yeah… he’s making up for it with a wooden ballerina he maid. It’s definitely a touching gesture, especially if you think about it from the POV of the old man: he might have gotten set in his ways, but he’s making an effort to be compassionate and change. But what about from her point of view? The point of view of the woman who he apparently treated like crap?

    Look, I’ve been in her shoes before, and while it’s certainly possible to get detached and step outside yourself and look at it abstractly, and say “wow… that really is beautiful, the possibility of opening your heart” it is not that easy when you’re in it. I know my reaction to people who have treated me transphobically and then tried to “make up for it” is to be like, uh yeah you should fucking apologize to me. Great, a ballerina. THANKS. That really makes up for treating me like dirt because I’m trans. Smile smile smile, go back inside and SCREAM. Forgiveness is not that easy. Maybe the woman in the commercial is Mother Theresa re-incarnate and it does come easy for her, and gee in that case she makes a great character for a liberal guilt-assuaging drama, huh?

    I can think about how GOOD this commercial is overall, but when I think about it through the lens of actual experience? It kind of makes me scream.

13. Holly, thanks for posting that IKEA commercial. I’m not a film-maker either, so that really helped me see what other possibilities there are in the constraints of a commercial.

14. I’m of two minds about this. On one hand – it’s cynical and the “really a man” line is heartbreaking (though you’d expect that dude to say it). On the other hand – equality in lending IS a good way to promote some form of positive social change.

    People are such simple creatures. He found out that she’s “part of the club” – i.e. she banks where he banks, and suddenly, that forced him to consider his past behaviour in a new light. What’s good about the ad is that it’s actually a fairly believable set-up.

    What’s bad about it is… well, the other stuff being talked about here.

15. I like IKEA catalogues, tbh, because they promote visibility without making much mention of it. At least the ones you get in Northern Europe. You’ll just have two guys cooking together in the cool new IKEA kitchen, in clearly flirty poses, but the text doesn’t mention it. Or you have an interracial family having breakfast in bed, no further comment.

    The Argentinian ad is clearly behind on that. But I’m with elle @9… It’s a damn TV ad for a bank, what do you expect?

16. This is just pure shit like any other commercial. I remember there was a fad going on here (Belgium/Europe) about commercials just as these. So-called real people and real stories but it all turned out to be the same lame excuse to buy a car etc. and that everyone should get one TO TRULY ACHIEVE HAPPINESS. Eh, commercials, too lame to even discuss.

17. I’m post-transsexual, became Suzan 40 years ago and have been female 37 years now.

    I recently was contacted by a woman I went to high school with, someone who treated me with great kindness those many years ago.

    Even though it has been many years small gestures like her contacting me meant a lot.

    There is a kindness too often forgotten in these post Reagan years of offering an apology for past wrongs and too often the corsened response is to reject that apology.

    I was very touched by the comercial

18. Agree with Seth at #5: it isn’t a huge gesture but if it were aired in Australia where I live, I’d still see it as a small positive step — it would be so different to the usual bigoted ads you see.

19. Thanks, Holly, for pointing out a lot of the subtleties in the commercial that I had missed. I have to admit, on first viewing, it did give me the warm fuzzies, but yeah, you’re right, there are some seriously patronising elements to it.

    But still, if the UK could produce something even on this level, I couldn’t help but feel it was a massive step forward in attitudes.

20. There is always a certain cynicism in commercials, and we should never forget that.

    However, we should also recognize and applaud the the all-too rare use of a transsexual character in a positive light.

    Negative stereotypes are all too common, for both natal women and transsexuals.

    I choose to appreciate the ad for the positives it brings to the table.

21. I want to point out that in the Argentine commercial the trans woman is a hair dresser. Does this reinforce “acceptable” occupations for trans women?

22. Nobody is on TV for any reason other than “buy this”.

    Especially true for commercials.

23. On Holly’s “niceness to others” idea – I saw a print ad for Eileen Fisher yesterday which depicted a middle aged white woman wearing their clothes, standing some Africa-esque location talking to a black person obviously styled to be “African”. I had the exact same thought about the message of that ad.

24. “Does this reinforce “acceptable” occupations for trans women?”

    Or does it enforce acceptable occupations for women?

    If someone come out young and is working class hair dressing is an inexpensive trade to get into.

    Unlike other trades it also allows one to work for one’s self and that is often important to women born transsexual.

    Way back in 1980 I needed a career and chose computer technician. I should have gone with my second choice which was nursing. I was a serious feminist and dismissed nursing in favor of the non-traditional field. Being the first and only woman in so many places wore me out.

    Then the jobs were off shored while nursing is still in high demand.

    But I should also point out that Argentine culture is more macho oriented and harder for women to work “men’s jobs”.

    Would restaurateur have been more acceptable?

25. My friend summed up the conflicted response nicely: “I love you, heartless corporation!” That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.

    Interesting that they could run this in Argentina but not the US. I mean, *I* haven’t seen anything like this in the US…anybody else?

26. Thoughts: Can a corporation promote its product and/or service and, at the same time, provide a helpful message for TS’s? Does this ad provide such a message? Would it better if it had not appeared?

27. One thing that I actually like about the bank ad is the use of an older, non-sexualized trans* woman. Yes, she is there to give redemption for the man, she is there to prove that the bank is a “nice place” – but she is neither there to titilate nor to laugh at.

    As a trans* woman, I’m just tired of either being shown as comedy or sex object.

28. I got warm fuzzies after viewing this commercial. Then I wondered if it just appeased my white, cis middle class, liberal guilt. But now I’m encouraged by it since the trans women who have posted here have good feelings about it.

    This would never fly in the US, sadly.

29. Pingback: links of interest « you’re reading too much into it

Comments are currently closed.