Spin 103.8’s Fully Charged has launched a new promotion to help 4 singletons find love. The campaign called ‘Billboard Singles’ gives listeners the chance to go on a date with one of the four hopefuls. They simply show their interest by sending them a WhatsApp voice message.

Billboards have been rolled out across Dublin and the campaign is also being run on Spin’s Facebook page.

There have been many reactions to the venture with many tagging friends they think might be interested.

One of the hopefuls is 25-year-old Niall who lives in Dublin. There is a blurb about the kind of guy he is looking for and a bit about himself on Spin’s site:

“Niall is looking for a guy who’s great craic, not afraid to send a meme and will text back immediately!

“In a perfect world Niall’s match would be easy on the eye but not too good looking in case people think “Jesus Niall is batting waaaay above his weight with that ride”.

“If he could swap lives with anyone it would be Paris Hilton.

“Niall recently started trapeze lessons and his motto is ‘there’s no such thing as a bad date, just a good story’.”

On the Facebook post, there have been over 300 comments, many sincere and hopeful of getting to know Niall more, but there have also been a number of comments from ‘lads’ jokingly tagging their friends.

This was highlighted by Twitter user @niamhjune who tweeted a screenshot of some of the comments with the caption “it’s 2018 and straight men still think that this is funny”

https://twitter.com/niamhjune/status/969547674558005248

In a further tweet they added, “and i know some of them are genuine responses but i can’t help but think that most of them are not..”

https://twitter.com/niamhjune/status/969548338487005184

This has received over 1.5k likes and has started a debate regarding the seriousness of making light in such a way and how ‘lad culture’ can affect young people who are struggling to find acceptance with their sexuality.

Niall himself has commented on the distasteful comments saying: “It’s me in the pic and while I don’t personally mind the comments as Unfortunately I’ve grown to accept and ignore this bollix but I know there’s a queer kid somewhere seeing this and feeling they won’t be accepted and that’s the reason it pisses me off”

It’s me in the pic and while I don’t personally mind the comments as Unfortunately I’ve grown to accept and ignore this bollix but I know there’s a queer kid somewhere seeing this and feeling they won’t be accepted and that’s the reason it pisses me off pic.twitter.com/qnxvU8t4Dd

— Niall Perrill (@NiallPerrill) March 2, 2018

He also replied to a user who argued that the comments are “harmless” and “can they not have a laugh”

Can they not have a laugh? It is kind of funny in a harmless lad way. https://t.co/stIVaRHCJZ

— L I A M 🇵🇸 🍉 The Gom Jabroni (@ThatBeigeCouch) March 2, 2018

In response to this, Niall said that it’s all fun and games while no-one is considering the effects of the comments on queer kids:

“Yes Hun, because this is just a ‘harmless’ slur. I’m sure all the ‘macho’ straight men will find it hilarious but theres a queer kid or 9 somewhere seeing that being themselves is a bad thing and feeling like they won’t be accepted and will be subject to this homophobic shite.”

Yes Hun, because this is just a ‘harmless’ slur. I’m sure all the ‘macho’ straight men will find it hilarious but theres a queer kid or 9 somewhere seeing that being themselves is a bad thing and feeling like they won’t be accepted and will be subject to this homophobic shite. pic.twitter.com/Ondd1XNOjv

— Niall Perrill (@NiallPerrill) March 2, 2018

A UK inquiry into lad culture found that women are not the only victims of harassment and violence on college campuses but the LGBT+ community is also affected.

“One in five LGBT students say they have experienced bullying or harassment at university. The number is even higher – one in three – for transgender students, according to research by the National Union of Students (NUS).

“Three-quarters of trans students say they don’t feel completely safe on their campus, and half have considered dropping out of their course entirely.”

Many LGBT+ students have called for universities to do more to tackle these damaging behaviors by delivering more education and workshops.

What do you think? Are ‘lads’ entitled to “have a laugh” or is this behavior unacceptable? Let us know in the comments below.