As long as Hollywood has been making movies, they’ve been telling the same story about the Irish. We’re almost always a joke or a punchline, and when a new film trailer hit cinemas, socials and out of home posters recently, it sparked outrage online. The trailer that left viewers crying “Can’t write, I got sick in my mouth” featured Irish actor Peter Coonan.
Coonan, the Limerick-born actor known for his roles in Love/Hate, King of the Travellers and Bad Sisters, is Paddy, the embodiment of every tired Hollywood trope imaginable: a flat cap, shamrocks, a tweed jacket, and a whiskey glass clasped in a bloody-knuckled hand. Luckily, this movie wasn’t quite what it seemed.
Challenges
It wasn’t a real trailer, and it wasn’t a real movie. It was a campaign for Epic – The Irish Emigration Museum created by its ad agency, The Public House (TPH). It challenges the outdated stereotypes about Ireland, and makes a point about the country’s true contribution to the world. Epic has a history of taking on outdated tropes that hold the nation back.
And this time, they’ve taken on Hollywood.
Hollywood movie marketing is famous for poking fun, and this was no different. A two-punch ‘tease and reveal’ was deployed to first hold a mirror up to Hollywood, showing them and the public how outdated these depictions of Ireland are before a reveal that offered Epic as an answer to the problem, with an invite to find out who the Irish really are at the museum.
Resonated
The campaign has resonated with movie buffs and the media. In The Guardian, Rory Carroll wrote of how “Irish critics howled – in mirth and agony – at the whimsy and dodgy accents in the likes of Wild Mountain Thyme, and Irish Wish” while film director Lance Daly said: “We have to be careful that we’re not sponsoring foreign film-makers to make fools of us.”
Dr Sian Barber, a film studies lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast, pointed out how far from reality Hollywood’s view of Ireland is, saying “It’s playing to this tourist idea of what Ireland can offer”. The latest iteration of TPH’s ‘This is Not Us’ platform again urges people to look past the tired clichés and visit Epic to discover the authentic Irish.
The TV ad with Coonan was filmed in Ryan’s Beggars Bush pub.
Watch the Dear Erin – This is Not Us ad here
