Fathead, a company famous for its life-like wall murals, plans to sue Rossia, the Russian state-run TV network, over the apparent doctoring of one of their commercials that, according to Mary Chastain over on Breitbart.com, “[manipulates] a commercial to use as evidence against the “erosion of morals” in the West with “sex education and tolerant views toward homosexuals.”
The ad features the reaction of an 11-year-old boy when he enters his bedroom to find one of Fathead’s decals – a monster truck – affixed to a wall. He is quickly overwhelmed by the birthday present and begins to cry. But in the Rossian version, the monster truck decal is replaced by pictures of naked men. “Is this how a child’s playroom should look?” asks the narrator of the show Special Correspondent.
Fathead’s response was immediate and unequivocal. “We will not tolerate the reconstruction of one of our family-friendly TV spots into a hateful, bigoted and outrageous attack on the gay community as well as children.”
With the enactment of anti-gay ‘propaganda’ laws and other recent measures – including banning a gay dating app and fining a journalist for saying gay people are normal on national television – Russia has rapidly descended into an inhospitable and even deadly place for the LGBT community. Last February, Pink News, billed as Europe’s largest gay news service, published an article “The 25 most shocking anti-gay stories from Russia so far” which details the frequently horrific litany of abuses directed at gay people.
And only recently, President Vladimir Putin declared before representatives of the Human Rights Council and the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia that “the problem with the rights of gays in Russia is a label put on Russia by other states.” But Chastain also notes: “Conditions for openly gay and lesbian Russians have become so dire that America is experiencing a surge in the number of LGBT Russians seeking asylum in America from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s tyranny against them.” She goes on to report that the number of asylum seekers here in the United States has jumped almost 300 percent from 68 in October 2012 to 161 by the end of October 2014.
Fathead is not expected to recover anything from Rossia.
Nice example of finding unusual opportunities for advocacy. Thank you, Fathead!