Brazil bank ad featuring blacks, transgender taken off air

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro shows his pen before signing the law that creates credit for small enterprises, during a ceremony at the Planalto Presidential Palace, in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, April 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

RIO DE JANEIRO – A bank commercial that featured a transgender woman and several young blacks has been removed after Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro intervened.

Bolsonaro, a former army captain with a long history of disparaging comments about minorities and gays, took office Jan. 1. Since then, he has frequently weighed into cultural wars.

In a statement to The Associated Press Friday, Banco do Brasil said the ad was taken off air after Bolsonaro spoke with the state-run bank's president, Rubem Novaes. The statement said the director of marketing had been fired, but did not provide further details.

The president's office declined comment.

Set to music, the ad shows several Brazilians going about their day.

News of the ad's removal comes a day after Bolsonaro reportedly said Brazil should not become a "gay paradise."