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What Happens When a Trans Woman and a Transphobe Try to Work Together?
Can Heineken solve the world's problems? *cough* PEPSI *cough*
Heineken attempts to bring together people with wildly different political opinions in their new "Worlds Apart" advertisement.
The beer company introduced two strangers and asked them to work together to set up a bar before revealing each other's polarizing viewpoints. A feminist is paired with a member of the "New Right," a climate change denier bonds with an environmentalist, and an ex-military transgender woman converses with a patriot. Each pair begins to work together and we nervously wait to see what happens when their conflicting political opinions are revealed.
Heineken asks, "Is there more that unites us than divides us?"
After the opposing viewpoint is revealed, every single person decides to stay and chat with their partner about their differences over a Heineken.
Many publications are praising the ad for one-upping Pepsi's disastrous Kendell Jenner commercial earlier this month, but is it really all that progressive, or glossing over the ugly truth?
Is it fair to frame a transphobe simply as an opposing political opinion to a transgender woman who just wants to exist in peace, especially considering the nine transgender women killed in 2017 alone? One Reddit user astutely commented "I wish mainstream media or normal/center people would stop presenting the alt-right and feminists as ‘both sides.’ The sexism and racism of the alt-right is nothing like the (admittedly, sometimes overzealous) belief in and support for equality from feminists."
The ad is cute, and definitely a step-up from Pepsi's cringeworthy mess of a commercial, but it's clear that neither cold beverage can actually solve the world's problems.
Taylor Henderson is a PRIDE.com contributor. This proud Texas Bama studied Media Production/Studies and Sociology at The University of Texas at Austin, where he developed his passions for pop culture, writing, and videography. He's absolutely obsessed with Beyoncé, mangoes, and cheesy YA novels that allow him to vicariously experience the teen years he spent in the closet. He's also writing one!
Taylor Henderson is a PRIDE.com contributor. This proud Texas Bama studied Media Production/Studies and Sociology at The University of Texas at Austin, where he developed his passions for pop culture, writing, and videography. He's absolutely obsessed with Beyoncé, mangoes, and cheesy YA novels that allow him to vicariously experience the teen years he spent in the closet. He's also writing one!
