Also LOSE WEIGHT WITH Squeamish Bikini
So the big scandal of this week is not the security shambles of the Olympics or some schools refusal to provide students with the HPV vaccination. Nor is it the not guilty verdict for the Ian Tomlinson case. No. Something even worse, more abhorrent and shocking happened. An advert aired in New Zealand for a Carefree female sanitary product had the audacity to feature a nude woman who said “Discharge” EW and “vagina”, vaginargh!
Complaints and compliments rolled in via social media. Squeamish Bikini is of course on the side of the compliments, if we're taking sides. It got us thinking about some of the truly offensive (or plain annoying) adverts out there.
You know how the Friday 5 is usually light-hearted and flip? Well it turns out adverts really press our buttons.
Complaints and compliments rolled in via social media. Squeamish Bikini is of course on the side of the compliments, if we're taking sides. It got us thinking about some of the truly offensive (or plain annoying) adverts out there.
You know how the Friday 5 is usually light-hearted and flip? Well it turns out adverts really press our buttons.
- Foster's Lager, so Australian. Such a man's beer. Well that's what Brad and Dan the two Aussie blokes want you to believe. As with all great advertising ploys nothing is what it seems and no one in Australia drinks Foster's, actually it's brewed in good old wet Blighty. That's not what has annoyed me about the lager not from down under. It is their latest in this blokey call centre (Aussie style!) adverts. A very glossy Lucy calls up seeking advice on her boyfriend who doesn't listen to her. Brad and Dan agree and tell her to 'go on' as they pour a pint, fix the telly and prune a wee tree. HA HA HA HA! Oh they're not listening, oh women always complaining about their boyfriends not listening. They tell Lucy they're not there to give a solution they're just there to, you've guessed it, listen. But they haven't been! Lucy thanks them and pats her computer game playing boyfriend on the knee. The only solution I can suggest is to cancel this string of ads and tedious clichés. Squeamish Nicola
Commute ruining advert
2. Due to my strict policy of not watching TV adverts (I love the pause button more than anything else about digital) and avoidance of facebook, you'd think I might be safe. Not so, for I am crammed into a tube everyday with idiotic straplines right in front of me. JP Morgan's "Invest in missed bedtimes" is the one that's causing the most damage to my tooth enamel at the moment.
Leaving aside for the moment the fact that you obviously can't invest in missed bedtimes (it's not as if you are building up more bedtimes, missed or otherwise, to be received in the future) there's a whole boatload wrong with this advert. Is making more money but never seeing your children better than the opposite? Is it desirable to miss time with your children? And if not, why do JP Morgan want to make it sound as if it is? And how much of a slap in the face is this advert to the thousands who see it everyday who work long hours not as an "investment" but because their circumstances force them to? I have to stop, I am gnashing my teeth as I type. I think it's fair to say I am not in the target market. Squeamish Louise
3. I find many adverts offensive. They offend my inner snob, my cultural sensibilities, and my sense of aesthetics. But the ones I hate most fit into a more specific category - quick cash loans. How freaking stupid do they think I am that I'd be willing to pay an interest rate of 2000 percent or more? I've been desperately poor. I've collected pennies from the street because they make a real difference to my ability to eat that night. But I've luckily never been so vulnerable that I've had to succumb to any form of loan-sharking, either the scary illegal variety or the sort that is currently being promoted to us with the full approval of the ASA. The fact that these companies are allowed to exist at all baffles me. But that we're having them - and the inherent risks in falling for their services - actively pushed down our throats? It's disgusting, immoral, and dangerous. F1 Kate
4. Adverts, by their very nature try to identify with us. I can make my peace with this. It is when they go for a target demographic I find myself getting infuriated. The worst adverts are those aimed at Mums. They actually make me hate mums. They make me want to leave my house and go on a mission to slap all mothers, sorry – that's not very personable, MUMS. This is of course both unfair and unhinged which is why I refrain from doing so. What's so odd is that I see adverts aimed at mums for things that are rather universal. A child has yet to burst forth from my loins but I use supermarkets, I've not proven my fertility but I still wash my clothes with washing powder and I've not qualified for a priority seat on the tube but I still moisturise. Somehow I am using these products incorrectly, in some sort of BARREN manner and just as the Yorkie bar was denied me so now are Olay, Head & Shoulders and Gillette because I am a girl and not a MUM. Evidently this is why P&G were unwilling to offer me sponsorship. Squeamish Kate
5. I absolutely hate the idiotic Wintrillions advert. As part of an idiotic speech it claims you can't conquer Everest alone - try telling that to Reinhold Messner who climbed it solo in 1980! Perhaps more annoyingly it claims you can't win hide & seek alone. Wrong - in fact you cannot lose! To win at hide and seek you either need to find all the people hiding or hide for long enough that the seeker gives up. If you are the only person playing you either win instantly as you've found everyone or win instantly as nobody is seeking for you any more. Gareth
Leaving aside for the moment the fact that you obviously can't invest in missed bedtimes (it's not as if you are building up more bedtimes, missed or otherwise, to be received in the future) there's a whole boatload wrong with this advert. Is making more money but never seeing your children better than the opposite? Is it desirable to miss time with your children? And if not, why do JP Morgan want to make it sound as if it is? And how much of a slap in the face is this advert to the thousands who see it everyday who work long hours not as an "investment" but because their circumstances force them to? I have to stop, I am gnashing my teeth as I type. I think it's fair to say I am not in the target market. Squeamish Louise
3. I find many adverts offensive. They offend my inner snob, my cultural sensibilities, and my sense of aesthetics. But the ones I hate most fit into a more specific category - quick cash loans. How freaking stupid do they think I am that I'd be willing to pay an interest rate of 2000 percent or more? I've been desperately poor. I've collected pennies from the street because they make a real difference to my ability to eat that night. But I've luckily never been so vulnerable that I've had to succumb to any form of loan-sharking, either the scary illegal variety or the sort that is currently being promoted to us with the full approval of the ASA. The fact that these companies are allowed to exist at all baffles me. But that we're having them - and the inherent risks in falling for their services - actively pushed down our throats? It's disgusting, immoral, and dangerous. F1 Kate
4. Adverts, by their very nature try to identify with us. I can make my peace with this. It is when they go for a target demographic I find myself getting infuriated. The worst adverts are those aimed at Mums. They actually make me hate mums. They make me want to leave my house and go on a mission to slap all mothers, sorry – that's not very personable, MUMS. This is of course both unfair and unhinged which is why I refrain from doing so. What's so odd is that I see adverts aimed at mums for things that are rather universal. A child has yet to burst forth from my loins but I use supermarkets, I've not proven my fertility but I still wash my clothes with washing powder and I've not qualified for a priority seat on the tube but I still moisturise. Somehow I am using these products incorrectly, in some sort of BARREN manner and just as the Yorkie bar was denied me so now are Olay, Head & Shoulders and Gillette because I am a girl and not a MUM. Evidently this is why P&G were unwilling to offer me sponsorship. Squeamish Kate
5. I absolutely hate the idiotic Wintrillions advert. As part of an idiotic speech it claims you can't conquer Everest alone - try telling that to Reinhold Messner who climbed it solo in 1980! Perhaps more annoyingly it claims you can't win hide & seek alone. Wrong - in fact you cannot lose! To win at hide and seek you either need to find all the people hiding or hide for long enough that the seeker gives up. If you are the only person playing you either win instantly as you've found everyone or win instantly as nobody is seeking for you any more. Gareth
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