Suncorp removes ad’s from placement next to ‘racist’ Bill Leak cartoon
Suncorp Bank has removed advertising from the same page as Bill Leak’s controversial cartoon published in News Corp’s national broadsheet The Australian earlier this week.
The Bill Leak cartoon, which has received multiple complaints to the Press Council, showed a policeman bringing back an indigenous juvenile to his father and telling him: “you’ll have to sit down and talk to your son about personal responsibility”.
The father responds: “Yeah righto, what’s his name then?”
In response to consumer complaints on social media the bank yesterday responded on Twitter saying: “This is being looked into. We definitely do not support the cartoon in yesterday’s issue.
As a long term suncorp member i am very dissapointed. Attacking this country’s freedom of speech and expression by pulling they’re advertising is petty and wrong. Banks should be managing peoples money, not political standpoints.
We’ll I’m thinking of opening a suncorp account out of gratitude for their actions. So swings and roundabouts.
I don’t see that Suncorp are attacking freedom of speech at all, they are (merely) responding to someone else’s racist cartoon. They are not forcing the The Australia or Bill Leak to stop doing what they want to do, Suncorp are just moving their investment. So there is no attack on the freedom of speech, so please stop trying to paint this as that. In fact I would suggest that the The Australian has abused their right of this freedom by blatantly inferring that the problem with torture of indigenous youth in detention is not the Governments fault or the guards who did it, but the fathers of the kids in the centre! Go figure. Talk about turning round the issue here. Perfect Murdoch hatred and vile lies. He’s the one abusing and attacking freedom of speech.
‘Freedom of speech”? You ignorant bigot!
I have the same right to freedom of speech as Bill Leak does. If I draw a cartoon, should I be guaranteed regular publication in a national newspaper, and expect corporate support through advertising revenue? Don’t invoke freedom of speech if you’re going to misuse the term.
The cartoon is neither funny nor satirical in fact it is seriously racist in stereotyping Aboriginal culture and family life. I will never buy another Australian newspaper and will try and influence anyone I know to keep their money in their pockets. It is an indictment on the Australian newspaper that they keep employing this man.
They didn’t say that they are going to stop advertising with The Australian, but rather that they will be removing it from “this content” – which I would would read as just ensuring their ads don’t appear next to the cartoon online.
Perhaps you could have done a little digging and contacted them for comment, rather than building an article around a vague tweet.
Matt Kemp: Suncorp has made no impact on free speech. It has made a commercial decision about where it wants brand association.
I’m sure the oz will continue its passionate tradition of brave truth telling at the expense of its commercial interests.
Seeing as Suncorp Bank have not advertised in The Australian in the past year, this probably isn’t going to make much of an impact. I wonder how many other brands that do not advertise in this paper will now jump on-board and publicise taking such a tough stand?
Like several others, Suncorp management have fallen victim to kneejerkitis, a virus associated with lack of thinking straight. It’s a pretty shallow and uninformed to label the cartoon racist; the blackfella policeman is a well known figure in outback Australia.
So you dont like the bank using freedom of expression to display their ” distaste ” for racism. are you sure your for freedom of speech or of any kind freedom. Anyway freedom of speech is a dog whistle for the gullible. Since when have we ever had freedom of speech?
What nonsense, Suncorpse!
This cartoon is blatantly racist and takes aim at aboriginal people by depicting such a hurtful and unfounded stereotype that it’s beyond belief. All anyone with a bit of sense and empathy has to do is look at this from an informed perspective. Kicking a group of people who are battling hard enough already is weak and trying to frame this as anything else won’t cut it.
This cartoon is blatantly racist and takes aim at aboriginal people by depicting a hurtful and unfounded stereotype. All anyone with a bit of sense and empathy has to do is look at this from an informed perspective and that is clear, as the backlash and dialogue all over the media, relating to the cartoon has proven. Kicking a group of people who are battling hard enough already is not brave, it’s weak and it reflect poorly on the rest of us. Further, trying to frame this as anything else doesn’t cut it. Personally I’d like to see Leak and the editor spend a couple of weeks in and around the communities they are so quick to make assumptions about. Then lets see if they stand by their ‘brave’ sentiment!
“Suncorp removes ad’s…”
Ad’s? Really?
Thanks Eats shoots and leaves – I’ve fixed that error.
Cheers,
Miranda – Mumbrella