Canned! Last orders for Scots action hero Butler’s macho beer ad
HE is the former hell-raiser who became one of Hollywood’s top action heroes.
But Scots star Gerard Butler, who is now teetotal, has fallen foul of censors in his latest role – advertising beer.
The 50-year-old, star of Olympus Has Fallen and 300, has been dragged into a row over ‘toxic masculinity’.
It follows a decision by South Africa’s advertising standards watchdog to ban the TV advert, which promotes Diageoproduced Windhoek beer and suggests that only real men – apparently like action star Butler – drink ‘real beer’.
Butler, from Paisley, Renfrewshire, is seen enjoying a pint at the bar with the slogan: ‘It’s time for the perfect beer.’
He then criticises a slim man who asks for lime with his bottle.
Butler states: ‘Hey, that’s a Windhoek. It’s 100 per cent beer. You don’t need any lime.’ He then looks to the camera and say: ‘Keep it real, Joe. Keep it real.’
The advert features the tag line, ‘Keeping It Real With Mr Gerard Butler’.
But South Africa’s Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) has refused permission for the commercial to be aired.
It accused the beer brand of using a ‘gentle looking, red-headed’ man – two characteristics, it claims, might typically make him ‘a target for teasing in a toxic environment’ – to be the target of ‘macho’ movie star Butler.
The Scot checked into rehab in 2012, later admitting he had sought help for an addiction to prescription drugs he had taken while filming 300, in 2006.
Another injury in 2011, rehearsing for Of Men And Mavericks, exacerbated his problems and he has been teetotal since.
The ARB’s decision cites a clause in its code of practice that bans ‘gender stereotyping or negative gender portrayal’.
Heineken, the brewers of Windhoek, argued the character had ordered a lime out of habit ‘and when he tasted the Windhoek Lager without the lime, his response was one of appreciation’.