Monday, November 21, 2011

Stunning LGBT campaign ads from Argentina


A year ago, Argentina became the first country in Latin America to grant same-sex couples full marriage rights. Before this year is over, the Argentinean congress might very well pass a groundbreaking transgender-rights law extending health care protections to transgender individuals and making it easier for trans folk to change their ID's to better reflect their gender identity without requiring proof of gender reassignment surgery.

Getting to this point has certainly taken years of work by Argentinean LGBT organizations, activists, advocates and allies.  It has also inspired some pretty amazing television and online video ads.

The following two ads come from the Observatory for the Promotion of Sexual Diversity Rights in Salta or Obs.Salta for short and were made possible through grants from the United Nations (turn "annotations" on for my on-screen translation).


The second ad takes a similar take in a different setting...


The ads have actually been out for more than a year but somehow I missed them. You might also have missed a couple of really amazing ads I featured earlier.

The first one came as the ultimately successful marriage equality campaign was about to begin its final phase...


The most recent ad I featured is also a stunner and comes as advocates push for the transgender rights bill...


These are truly amazing ads.  When I try to think of any LGBT advocacy ads from the United States that are similar to these I am at a loss.  True, attitudes towards these issues might be different in Argentina than in the United States but does anyone know of any related ads produced in the U.S. that seem as immediate and vibrant as these ads?

Reaction:

6 comments:

TikiHeadAZ said...

They speak to your empathy, and rub your nose in it! Beautifully done!

Fergal said...

How beautiful and fearless it is to not pander to homophobes.

Blabbeando said...

@Fergal Oi! Actually, I know some people have complained that the translated text in the last ad is sometimes hard to read but one of my favorite moments comes at the 1:22 mark when Alejandro says it takes patience to reach people who might not get trans issues at first. Of course, a trans person shouldn't even have to explain himself or herself to others but THAT SPECIFIC MOMENT turns common representation of transgender folks in these type of ads on its head. Alejandro, in fact, is presenting himself as the one who has to tolerate other people's understanding of who he is and not the other way around. In other words, he doesn't present himself as a victim but, nevertheless, as someone who deserves full rights. It's pure genius.

kris said...

when a message is said with class, it is difficult to ignore. thanks.

Anonymous said...

These are incredible ads! I'm sorry they've passed by my radar for so long. Thank you for the translations!

Anonymous said...

This is an other argentinian Ad about the 1st anniversary of the gay marriage bill. Its kinda cool! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etsTRLxklG8