EE - It’s a No Brainer with Kevin Bacon & Stephen Fry - (2016) (UK)

Kevin Bacon, who is the center of the universe has been shilling EE in the UK for years now, going door to door and dropping out of the sky via helicopters. Now Kevin is a TV show host, not content with playing against himself in "Android vs. Arachnoid" he has now invited math genius Rachel Riley and Stephen Fry here just to stump them on TV in the show "It's a no brainer." Why would anyone choose to be on a slower network? Does Stephen Fry have any words for that? He can use latin ones - but nope, there's just no rhyme or reason to it.

Meanwhile, Kevin also plays some audience members, donning wigs, moustaches, false teeth and in this case a dress as well. Blink and you'll miss it. Uh-oh. I have a feeling this will upset some people. Bingo! Rachel Evans, a Video software engineer at the BBC who "makes iPlayer work" and "also happens to be trans" according to twitter bio, was quite upset by the Kevin Bacon audience cameo in this particular ad. Never mind that actors have donned drag since long before Shakespeare's plays, in 2016 it's apparently not just offensive, but to quote Rachel it's (the) "sort of imagery is what gets people like me killed." What sort of imagery, Kevin looking like a dude in a dress? Was John Cleese also trying to get people like Rachel killed? Having voiced concern with EE's social media team, Rachel was told to not be such a drama queen - a "grow up Harriet" style move - and Rachel responded by suggesting diversity awareness training. Then Rachel also demanded the "dismissal of the ad agency, and training for Robyn" - Robyn being the social media manager in question who responded. Like the people who don't choose EE there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. Meanwhile Rachel is still waiting for EE to apologise.
Update: EE apologized on twitter, see screendump for full apology in comments.

TITLE: IT’S A NO BRAINER WITH KEVIN BACON
CLIENT: EE
ADVERTISING AGENCY: SAATCHI & SAATCHI LONDON
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: ROB POTTS, ANDY JEX
COPYWRITER / ART DIRECTOR: ROB POTTS, ANDY JEX, ADAM CHIAPPE
PLANNER: SAM WISE
ACCOUNT HANDLER: JAMES MCCULLAGH, SAM HAWKEY, TOM MCMULLEN

PRODUCER: RICHARD FIRMINGER
ASSISTANT PRODUCER: GEORGIE FORD
MEDIA BUYING AGENCY: MEC

MEDIA PLANNER: RICHARD BARTLETT
PRODUCTION COMPANY: HUNGRY MAN
DIRECTOR: HANK PERLMAN
EDITOR: JOHN SMITH
PRODUCER: JOSH GOLDSTEIN, MATT BUELS
POST-PRODUCTION COMPANY: MPC
AUDIO POST-PRODUCTION COMPANY: FACTORY

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Dabitch's picture

UPDATE - EE apologized

Jason Fox's picture

What a stupid thing to have to apologize for. I guess Shakespeare was a hater, too.

Jake Morris's picture

The one thing that frustrates me about this advert is the fact that the "Genius'" don't tackle the obvious reason for not choosing the 50% faster network... The fact that a lot of networks are much cheaper!!

Dabitch's picture

Wanna bet it's more expensive because they hire Kevin Bacon to be their spokesperson? ;)

Sport's picture

Kevin Bacon looks ridiculous in drag.