An offensive Ikea TV commercial currently airing in Thailand is angering the transgender community, and Ikea has only been open here for a short time.
Ikea opened in Bangkok, Thailand last year.
The company is also known for their use of cheap forced labor by political prisoners in Chinese and East German prisons to make their cheap furniture.
So it’s not surprising to see Ikea, a company with questionable morals, putting out an offensive ad in Thailand making fun of the transgender community. After all, decency at Ikea seems to be something the company doesn’t understand.
The advertisement in question was aired on Thai TV last month and this month and shows a young Thai girl at Ikea with her older ‘boyfriend’.
As she spots something that is so supposedly cheap it’s shocking, she suddenly exclaims in a deep manly voice — proof once and for all that, yes indeed, ‘she’ is a Thai ladyboy. She is then left to lug a huge flat-packed piece of furniture home by herself as her boyfriend runs off in the opposite direction.
Of course, the transgender community in Thailand is angry about what they say is an offensive Ikea TV commercial and has already sent a letter to Ikea telling them so.
In the letter, the Thai Transgender Alliance says “the transgender content of the advertisement is negative and stereotypical in nature, perpetuating misunderstanding transgenderism as human sexuality for ‘deceitful and deviant lifestyle.’”
What they are missing, however, is the Ikea ad is also offensive to Thai men, as it also portrays a stereotypical Thai man who is obviously older, likely married, and still schlepping off to Ikea with his ‘mia noi girlfriend’ while the little Thai wife stays at home.
