What’s a Bench biennial underwear show without the controversy?

Just when Ben Chan thought the worst was over after deciding to postpone “The Naked Truth” by a day because of Typhoon “Mario,” the visionary board chair of Suyen Corp. had to deal with a storm of protests on social media.

Some netizens, politicians and women’s groups found the segment featuring actor Coco Martin pulling a female dancer-contortionist on a leash extremely offensive.

The issue nearly eclipsed everything else in the show, including those fresh Cirque du Soleil-flavored dance and acrobatic routines, as protests went viral hours after images of Martin and the unidentified Caucasian woman walking on all fours came out.

It may not be the kind of publicity Chan wanted to generate for his multimillion-peso production, but the show created a publicity bonanza for Bench just the same.

“Actually, the woman on a leash was not playing a woman,” Chan wrote later in an exclusive e-mail interview with Lifestyle (see main story). “She was playing a wild cat. She was playing an animal character. Think ‘Cats’ on Broadway, or ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ or ‘The Lion King.’”

Public apology

There were irate accusations made by certain individuals that Bench was also subliminally promoting sadomasochistic acts through such a segment.

To his credit, Chan, instead of blaming or hiding behind his collaborators, faced the issue and gave a public apology soon after the social media fuss.

“We at Bench apologize to the public for all the offensive elements of the show ‘The Naked Truth,’” a company-issued statement said. “We will take all these concerns seriously and will serve as a lesson learned when we plan our next show. We at Bench shall continue to uphold the dignity of women and our commitment will remain so.”

For the sake of argument, what if someone like Marian Rivera, instead of Martin, starred in the controversial segment by pulling a man-cat on a leash? Would the incident still go viral? Would people, especially men, still be up in arms? Alex Y. Vergara