Candy Bar Girls – the trailers: What do you think?
by Petit Fours
Channel 5′s lesbian documentary Candy Bar Girls has just released the trailers for its show out on 7th July. There are three of them: Pussy, Chess and Workout. The strapline is “Lesbians: Not what you expect.” Some great person has filmed them off the TV and put them on Youtube. We’ve been staring at them, transfixed. Watch and tell us what you think.
Pussy, chess and workouts
“Pussy”
“Chess”
“Workout”
Oh hai, 1999
OMG I’m speechless…..
This reminds me of very bad 70ties straight porn.
And this is clearly not targeting the lesbian audience.
As a main contributor on the show, I am absolutely horrified by these trailers and agree they’ll appeal to a straight, male audience. I’m deeply embarrassed and feel totally let down :-(
love playing chess. always playing chess with other lesbians
This is worrying to see at this early stage. What concerns me is how this thing has been edited. Are people going to end up feeling exposed? Will people be portrayed in correct contexts and also will they be looking for any thing that is a little negative in order to ‘make good telly’? Knowing a couple of people who have been involved in this I really hope that they have had accurate sides of their personalities filmed.
I am sure the intention of this show from the people at Lion was the complete opposite of what has been pumped out on those trailers.
Let’s hope all the same.
As expected. Nothing new here.
I was approached to let them film in one of the Corset and Diamonds events and my rules were to film as it happened with no hidden agendas or manipulations, no portrayal of guests in a demeaning or stereotypical way . They never replied to my email… Anybody wonders why?
Red Velvet – dont take yourself so seriously. They are a bit naff but at least they are trying to subvert what most people would assume a lesbo show would be about.
Ms Bugsy’s right actually. Obvs these are titillating and trashy but they’re meant to be saying ‘Ahahaha, you thought it was just going to be about sex. Well it’s not’. Unfort, they’re using sex to make that point, which is … a little contrary.
I also know a few people involved, but I’ve got to say, the original adverts that asked for ‘tattoo artists, strippers, bar girls’ kind of says everything about what kind of show they will make. With all due respect to those involved, I really can’t fathom why anyone would have agreed to do it. @RedVelvet and @Leng – can you open my eyes? How was the programme sold to you/your friends on the inside?
Having taken part in the programme, I can share that I entered into it to try and be representative of the opposite of the kinds of girls they advertised for i.e. tattoo artists, strippers and bar girls.
Obviously sex sells and it’s Channel 5, so I always knew it was going to push for certain types of scenes within the proramme, but I wanted to enter into it to show you can be a lesbian with a successful career, a settled relationship and a pretty “normal” life i.e. not wildly drunk and stripping my way through life, though kudos to people who choose to do so.
am not featured in those adverts (a conscious decision to not compromise my career) and sincerely hope that the editing of the ads is not representative of the editing of the programme.
Seriously, I like them! I know they’re using sex, but we all expected that. They’re also using really cool music, and lets face it, I spent most of my gay years in very cool clubs. And they’re showing really hot girls doing really ordinary things, which I like as it’s a step away from the L Word and their constant partying and sexing.
This does not reflect my views on the possible train wreck they’ve done on the series at all, there was a reason I (mostly) backed out of getting involved.
I wasn’t filmed much nor was there much focus on me as I am friends with a few people who were appearing on this. In many ways my involvement is quite small but there is some. I’m also transitioning so hopefully any parts that refer to that will be edited in a way that will be respectful.
At the same time it was marketed in a way that it wanted to be positive – of some of the people I met that were involved in creating this there did seem to be a wanting to make this a positive portrayal. This was what was marketed out to me and others and on that basis I wasn’t against the idea. Particularly as there wouldn’t be a strong focus on me. I happened to be friends with a couple of people on this who have featured quite a lot or so we are led to believe. Just because they were filmed nearly 24/7 doesn’t mean that they will be shown lots in the final edit.
The bad thing is that we don’t know what has been put out there and it appears that what the original programme makers intention was to what it is being put out now are two completely different things.
It could also be that they have just made horrendously tacky adverts in order to get a high number of ratings. We don’t know nor will know until it is screened.
I’m confused by the responses here. They clearly are using sexual imagery then turning it on its head, why is that exploitative? Surely the take out is as Fairy Cake says, but i don’t agree that they are using sex to make the point. For my money they’re ok, the neon looks nice!
Dont we all like Sex and dont they say Sex sells? I enjoyed the funny adverts.
I really don’t believe the Candy Bar Girls adverts are intended to make a certain say audience think the documentary is about sex, but quite the contrary to make them initially think so, but then find out it’s not. This is how Channel 5 promote. They need to scandalise to attract. The people involved in the documentary know what was filmed and said and it was far from a pornographic documentary. If any of them had the opportunity to see the 15 minute sneak preview like I did, they will know that it is going to be light-hearted and funny, portraying lesbian woman in a positive way. I think everyone is being a little pressumptious and over-dramatic about the entire thing before it has even aired. This was an all-woman film and production crew and I have faith that the programme will honestly represent a sector of the lesbian community. It was only on this understanding that Candy Bar got involved. Let’s not pass judgement before screening. I, for one, am looking forward to watching this documentary. I think it’s a positive opportunity for lesbians to break out onto screen for the first time to portray our community that has not yet had a chance to air it’s voice.
This is such an interesting thread. @Ceylondrink…you’re absolutely right, there is an underlying message here of turning sexual imagery on its head. However, for Joe Public watching this between a footie match, would he really pick up on the subtlety of this? Would the homophobic school bully pick up on that nuance?
I actually rarely take myself seriously, but in this case it’s not just my reputation I’m worried about…it’s actually friends, family and the wider public, eg. the parents who cannot accept their daughter is gay/don’t know how to deal with it. This trailer is one of their first points of reference. But you know, they’re only trailers and I believe the show will be much, much better…from my point of view, I didn’t harp on about my sex life (been there, done that!) because I wanted to show the British public a different side of lezza life focusing a bit more on the more commonplace (not banal!) aspects eg. looking for work, religion, family, supporting a friend through his transition. If that makes me less marketable, so sue me :-) In this emotional journey I just tried to give lesbians a slightly more credible rep. Do we need one in 2011 you may ask? The answer: how many of your friends are out in the workplace/family? If you can all say 100%, my job has already been done…keep the debate coming!
@Sam, she’s absolutely right though…the show is nothing like the trailers!
Well said Samantha. I think it is so easy to criticise and get all inflamed and dramatic about things before you have actually seen them. The point that most people seem to be missing is that the adverts are deliberately turning a sterotype on its head. Yes its done in a fairly cheesy way, but look how much discussion they have already prompted. I mean seriously, isn’t that the entire point of advertising, to raise awareness of a product?
I’m interested to know from whoever was filmed for the series whether they were filmed doing overtly sexual stuff? If so, why are you annoyed that this is being used? If they werent filmed doing anything like that then there is nothing to worry about. Editing can probably change the tome of something but I doubt that it can make it look like a group of people are having a full on gang bang when they are actually drinking coffee.
Well said Samantha! i think we need the remember that Channel 5 is a major broadcaster and surely therefore they are trying to attract people to whom the idea of a lesbian documentary is not an attractive one. I think by using the “no cliche’s” they are actually being very genuine, whilst being provocative at the same time. I guess its a fine line as to whether it upsets some people lesbian or not, but if the aim was to get talked about… I haven’t seen the show but am savvy enough in the ways of tele that i reckon there is more to come from this lot of trailers
@ Red Velvet but isn’t that the point? Joe Public thinks that the scene is probably all naked girls writing around in bars and clubs, so these trailers are acknowledging that and challenging why they might think that? If Channel 5 stop at these then i think they might be being a little crass but if this show is a big one for them (and considering the hype i think it must be) then there must be more thought as to where these are going.
Seriously I think everyone doesnt really get it. This is channel 5 and we all know what channel 5 is like. Yes the adverts are tacky yes initially you think ‘omg they are about sex’ but then it turns it around so the general public will be like ‘oh this is different, I may just watch this’. We are normal people going about normal lives. This can only be a good thing. Think of the Real L Word and how much that is about partying and sex. We all know that isnt real life but its what people will watch. This show is different. It can only be a good thing to show lesbians being exactly the same as straight people. We get enough bad press as it is without the lesbian community slagging it off. How about being supportive and waiting until youve actually seen it before judging.
@MeIO – a person after my own heart! I totally agree with you last comment of, ‘We get enough bad press as it is without the lesbian community slagging it off. How about being supportive and waiting until you’ve actually seen it before judging.’
So many fellow lesbians moan about not having a place to call there own, not having a sense of family and community, etc, but the truth is we all need to do our part in nurturing and instilling positivity into our community and ignite it, before being so quick to put it down or slag off anything that involves us.
Lesbians put each other into boxes and if a certain style or circumstance does not appeal to their own individual ideas of what lesbians should be, they are quick to shoot it down. Our community is diverse and should be appreciate for what it is.
in many ways, i prefer chess to sex
@MeLO @Samantha Jonker Couldn’t agree more. Yes the first time I watched these adds I was like, well that was all a.bit.too.raw, but the more I think about it, and by the looks of it, their sensationalist approach to their advertisement of this show has absolutely worked, and I’m sure they’re all delighted that it’s getting such a reaction(be it positive or not)
Like the rest of you, I am but specualting, however from what have heard, it’s not going to be like those ads. I think you’ll all be pleasantly surprised to see just how much Candy Bar Girls will deliver a poignant message that yes, we are women who like women *salUTE*, however that doesn’t mean we can’t live the same lives as any Heterosexual. I guess the potrayal of equality is the word I’m looking for. I’m thinking of the younger lesbians here who will watch it and see that they by no means need to alter themselves in order to ‘fit in’, or be noticed as a lesbian.(something i’m sure some of us could have done with knowing when we were going at this stage)
It’s modern, and it’s funny, and I for one will be going along to Candy Bar July 7th to see it, and support those who have been brave enough to take part!
I think the main issue is always going to be that “good TV” (or what executives think makes “good TV”), will never be a balanced, flattering, kindly portrayal of anyone.
The L Word came the closest, but it still had to inject an inappropriate amount of drama and glamour into proceedings so that the characters didn’t really have jobs, and spent a disproportionate amount of time crying and fucking each other. It’s a bench mark though, really – I mean, I don’t think it was unrealistic to be disappointed by Lip Service, which in my opinion was genuinely badly done – poor acting, poor scripting, even poor continuity editing. The issue wasn’t the representation so much as the all-round terribleness. I think, as far as fiction goes, we really deserve something decent.
But reality is totally different. The nature of reality TV is exploitative. I can’t think of a single lifestyle reality show where the characters come out favourably – from TOWIE, to Jersey Shore, to Big Brother. Those that discuss doctor’s surgeries or veterinary practices are constructed to focus on the patients/animals, but lifestyle reality shows concentrate on people’s stories. And in order to make a reaaaaally good story, you need bad guys and harlots and scandal.
I guess queers like us just have to try our hardest to shape our own representation in RL.
@MeLO @Samantha Jonker Couldn’t agree more. Yes the first time I watched these adds I was like, well that was all a.bit.too.raw, but the more I think about it, and by the looks of it, their sensationalist approach to theadvertisement of this show has absolutely worked, and I’m sure they’re all delighted that it’s getting such a reaction(be it positive or not)
Like the rest of you, I am but speculating, however from what I have heard- it’s not going to be like those ads. I think you’ll all be pleasantly surprised to see just how much Candy Bar Girls will deliver a poignant message that yes, we are women who like women *salUTE*, however that doesn’t mean we can’t live the same lives as any Heterosexual. I guess the potrayal of equality is the word I’m looking for. I’m thinking of the younger lesbians here who will watch it and see that they by no means need to alter themselves in order to ‘fit in’, or be noticed as a lesbian.(something i’m sure some of us could have done with knowing when we were at this stage)
It’s modern, it’s funny, and I for one will be going along to Candy Bar July 7th to see it, and to support those who have been brave enough to take part!
I’d like to know what makes Fairy Cake such an expert on the world of TV. If you honestly believe that people in TOWIE, Jersey Shore etc feel they are represented badly, you are extremely naive. Why, if that is the case, do they all sign up to do the second series?
Also, there are loads of reality shows like One Born Every Minute and The Hotel that are really amazing and actually really poignant. Have you seen the show? Do you know for a fact that it is like Essex or Chelsea?
Should probs have used d’aul spell check before I posted that one. Grand. Another thought is I wonder if they had used an alternative to the ‘Pussy’ ad (cringe), could it have been ok? The other two are fairly funny,no?
@Ms bugsy
I didn’t say I was an expert! :) I was just making the point that reality TV is constructed. It’s never going to be ultimately realistic, because ultimate realism isn’t dramatic enough to make what execs consider good TV, so maybe we need to be a bit more understanding in our expectations of what these programs can achieve. I don’t own a television, so my experience is very limited to things I see online. I am a bit informed in that I studied this kind of thing (who hasn’t, really…), and a good friend of mine edited on a few reality shows on CH4. He always used to stress that you could achieve anything you want with editing.
I should have probably replaced the word ‘favourably’ with ‘well-rounded’. Maybe the stars of TOWIE and Jersey Shore feel comfortable with their portrayal on those programs; I don’t know enough to know. What I do feel is that it must be very difficult to hold onto the verisimilitude of a program and still make something TV bosses want to commission.
I doesn’t feel very nice to be called “extremely naive”. I was just trying to be nice and positive about the show, and not put too much pressure on it to perform.
Having recently finished working on TOWIE and in the past having worked on reality programs, for my sins. I can tell you from personal experience that most execs and producers are complete sharks who really couldn’t give a toss how the people in their programs are represented in fact they often go out of their way to make them look ridiculous, because Jo public loves car crash TV. And yes a lot of the people in these programs are indeed fame hungry, and execs think that gives them the right to make them look however they want, but execs want their ratings, especially when the programs are being aired on commercial channels. I hope for the sake of the people involved in Candy Bar Girls that they are portrayed in a thoughtful light, but honestly I’m not going to hold my breath.
Forget everything else – think how much joy we’ll get from tweeting and doing video reviews of this show! I’m shoring up the vino as we speak (not really, but I guess I’ll get around to it at some point).
French Fancy – I would like to know in what capacity you worked on TOWIE. I would guess either runner or researcher, because anyone higher up knows that most producers aren’t sharks at all. Yes they have to make a good show, but not at any cost.
There are also a hell of a lot of fairly stringent editorial guidelines and legal hoops that people have to jump through before shows are commissioned or broadcast. I have been reading all of this with amused bewilderment until now but felt I had to wade in after this attack on my profession :)
I have been making TV shows for over almost a decade and I can guarantee you that I am neither a shark nor exploitative. Also, if you think the industry is that bad, why the hell are you knowingly continuing to work in.
oh dear mother of all lesbians! I just saw the chess trailer on tv which wasn’t the worst watching it on here…
it is very cringy watching it on the telly….but what does one expect if it’s a show about the candy bar? that place clearly doesn’t represent the diversity of the london scene….unfortunately. @ french fancy – 100% agreed
@ screech Actually I’m an editor. So work pretty closely with producers and I said most producers not all, more specifically ones in reality tv perhaps I should have specified. And yes I’m well aware of the legalities. But I’m sure you’re aware there are also legal loopholes. And I never said I think the industry is that bad, I’ve met some wonderful producers but the wonderful ones don’t tend to work on programs such as these, you’re obviously one of the good ones.
As another main contributor to the show,I must say I’m a little surprised by the teasers also…when we began filming, it was under the assumption that this was a sociological look at an underepresented minority group… though I can see what the trailers are trying to say and though, yes, it is Channel Five, I have to wonder how many people watching these are going to pay attention to the fact it is trying to say it is not all about sexual innuendos and raunchy lesbian debauchary.
Yes, you can say we are taking ourselves too seriously, but we know what we filmed and I know at least in my sections and the other girls I know, there’s not really any of that? During the course of filming, there was job interviews, career changes,births, dating, engagements, heartbreak and I’m hoping, teasers aside,if they stick to the original plan for the show, it can be something none of us need to be ashamed of. If it hasn’t been edited to look too scandalous, then I think it has the potential to really open eyes to the fact that any woman can be a lesbian… we are not all cut from the same cloth.
Alongside this, not all of us had anything to do with the Candy Bar scene, I think it may be more diverse than you’d expect…
These are shit promos. Really shit.
But that’s all they are – promos. And guaranteed, these were not produced, shot or edited by the same people who produced, shot and edited the show. These will have been subbed out to whoever does Channel 5′s branding and promos (and if they do it in-house, it will still be a team of ‘creatives’ who handle promos, not the film crew themselves).
They will be marketeers, whose sole purpose is to make something sell: chances are, when these were made they wouldn’t have even seen the footage from the show. They just would have been given a synopsis and a brief.
Irrespective of woeful double-entendres and clumsy handling, this is just plain shit creative work.
Not sure it’s going to reflect the actual show, however.
I’ve now watched the first 17 minutes of the first episode. It’s not hideous.
@Annette I still think the point of these trails is not to sell to lesbians, if Channel 5 did that then they wouldn’t get the ratings they obviously want from the show. Whilst i think they are near the mark and provocative and sure not all of them work for me, Its obvious they want people both in the scene and not to talk about them, which they are, so is that ‘shit creative’? Surely if it was we wouldnt be here talking about it?
@Everyone…
We’re expecting the DVD any day now, and DFC and I will be doing a proper review of it. Excited! We’ll try and be as neutral as possible. :D Let’s hope Arctic Roll is right!
@ Fairy Cake VINOOOO
I’ve seen the first two episodes. It’s been done pretty well and is quite funny. Theres no sex and what youd expect from seeing the ads at all. Just wait til you see it before going into one.
I laughed at these commercials. I assume the show is of british origin, so I hope it will be executed tastefully.
It’s Candy Bar on channel 5. Ergo it’s going to be more Now! than Saturday Guardian, more Take a Break! than Spectator. For myself, that would imply that ‘a sociological look at an underepresented minority group’ was not in the offing.
As for the promos? Cheap, tacky, predictable, selacious, common denominator reality churn out. Dull, dull, dull.
I’m bitter, as i wasn’t cool enough to make it through to the final 10…but hey….fate has a way of working things out for the better….and i’m not great at Chess.
I don’t get it. Why bother to challenge a certain sterotypical straight male idea of lesbian sexuality using a trailer for a show that the same particular straight male demographic wouldn’t watch for more than five minutes?
I don’t think the trailer has any value in challenging ideas or stereotypes – it’s just lazy, some idiot in a boardroom saying “Oh,a show about lesbians. Why isn’t there more sex? Put more sex!”
@Ceylondrink
Is it good marketing? Absolutely. Is it good ‘selling’? Yes.
Is it good creative? Definitively not – it is lazy lazy lazy. There a million more wry, tongue-in-cheek ways that they could have done this (which, bizarrely would have made more sense with C5′s recent branding overhaul) but they’ve defaulted to boys’ ‘ha ha, LESBIANS *snigger*’ creative.
I think it’s poop.
But sure, it is deffo serving its purpose…
Had to re-read this post a few times to fully understand your points but in the end I got there.