Cheeky sexual intentions

IN response to Sylvia Lee's defence of her agency's Carlsberg beer commercial (South China Morning Post, June 23), I feel I ought to join a debate that seems to have drawn reactions from most people living in Hong Kong, and stands a good chance of lasting as long as the Sino-British debate ran over the funding of the airport.

Given that the person who conceived the ad is a woman and has no qualms about portraying women as sex objects, would it therefore be all right for me to say all gweilos are fat, sweaty and arrogant and then hide behind the flimsy logic that I am a gweilo and I'm allowed to say that? I think not.

This advert would have gone through so many channels before finally finding approval; 'creative' directors, account directors, Carlsberg marketing boffins (who presumably have the best idea of their target audience and what they want to see), the advertising regulation board, the advertising managers of the TV channels who carry the advert. Presumably no one batted an eyelid, which I think says more about the general view of women in society than the more liberal-minded citizens among us would care to admit.

That the advert reached our TV screens only after the 9.30 'adult' viewing period begins, is recognition of the advert's cheeky sexual intentions.

I know that two wrongs don't make a right, but couldn't San Miguel produce a commercial with a group of women sitting around discussed the bulge in men's trousers, providing, of course, they were referring to the size of their wallets? JAMIE BUCKLEY Mid-Levels