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Friday 5...Adverts that offend us

20/7/2012

13 Comments

 
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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. 

  1. 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
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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
13 Comments
F1 Kate link
19/7/2012 06:46:22 pm

Meh, as someone whose father invested in a hell of a lot of missed bedtimes but also managed to build fantastic relationships with his progeny, I don't see anything wrong with the ING advert.

In fact, the first time I saw it it made me a bit misty-eyed for those evenings when I'd stir from sleep to find that my dad had come in to say goodnight to my comatose form after another business trip/long day at the office. That's my childhood you're dissing!

Reply
Gareth
19/7/2012 07:43:14 pm

But that's not "investing in missed bedtimes". That's realising you've built up a deficit in your relationship with your child and doing something about it.

Investment means putting money into something with the expectation of gain, therefore "investing in missed bedtimes" sounds like you are expecting financial reward for ignoring your children!

Also, while I was off ill I saw a daytime advert for a loans company with a 4800% interest rate!

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Squeamish Kate link
19/7/2012 07:59:17 pm

YIKES!

Yeah I agree with Gareth. But then I think it's clear I think all adverts should steer clear of any kind of parental theme.

F1Kate link
22/7/2012 09:32:26 pm

Err, he did get a financial reward for ignoring his children. The harder you work, and the more work you do (in certain professions), the greater the financial reward.

By sacrificing time with his family as we were growing up, he was able to provide us all with a secure financial future. If that's not investing in missed bedtimes, I don't know what is.

But I think this is an example of how your upbringing influences your reactions - everyone I know with a similar background to mine has had the same nostalgic reaction to that ING ad. If I didn't have a great IFA already, I would have been tempted switch to ING because in that one poster they showed that they (or their marketing department) understands the world as my upbringing taught me to see it.

F1Kate link
22/7/2012 09:33:55 pm

Except I just twigged it's actually JP Morgan. Whatever - the argument is the same, even if I got the brand wrong.

Gareth
23/7/2012 09:31:34 pm

Kate, I really wasn't dissing you upbringing - I just think this is a really stupid advert. I'm not saying anyone who misses bedtimes is evil or neglectful; I just think this advert is flawed and uses language poorly.

Looking at this entirely objectively, the ISA the advert is about has an annual investment limit of £11,250. Assuming they manage a 1% return on this (which in the current climate is being generous) that's £112.50 a year for missing your child grow up, which I think we can all agree isn't a great deal.

There's nothing wrong with sacrificing your time to improve your child's future, I just don't think this product does that and to advertise it so is morally dubious.

Squeamish Kate link
23/7/2012 01:26:32 am

Oh F1Kate I am sorry that just makes me a little sad, my dad worked very hard but also came home in time to read me a bedtime story every night no matter how many times (a lot of times) I demanded the Munch Bunch Emma Apple story or the plotless but educational Body Book. You do have the best work ethic I have seen EVER though so who's the sentimental fool?

Reply
Gareth
23/7/2012 09:38:05 pm

I think I've read that one - I have a vauge memory of her being sad because everyone forgot it was her birthday. I remember my favourite one was the Mexican orange (Pedro?).

I remember reading a few years back that all the books went out of print because the originals were destroyed in a warehouse fire in the late 80's. So sad that most people will only know of these characters from the yogurt adverts they were used for in the 90's.

Squeamish Kate link
23/7/2012 10:12:59 pm

No, she gets tricked by Roz Raspberry and the other naughty berries that bathing in mud will make her skin look good. Only HA HA joke's on them 'cos mud IS good for your skin and she looked extra shiny. I was obsessed with the mud bath.

Squeamish Louise link
23/7/2012 06:14:38 pm

Eek, I certainly didn't mean to diss anyone's childhood, particularly as you're obviously happy and have a good relationship with your parents.

I come from an incredibly priviliged background, most of which was created by my dad working long hours. But he still made time for his family - I went to school with plenty of people who never saw one or other of their parents, but were always showered with gifts/ designer labels/ cars/ cash.


I understand people want to provide finiancial security for their kids when they can, but at a time when a lot of people have to pull insane hours just to cover the bills/ mortgage etc without even being able to put anything away I find this advert really crass.

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Not Squeamish Neil
23/7/2012 07:05:11 pm

I agree with your later point (in the comments) that this is all about upbringing. as someone who doesn't know what ISA stands for, but does understand how if I didn't have £300 extra quid by Friday i would be living on the streets, I found your point about exorbitant pay-day loans, and how anyone who uses one is stupid to be a fairly big diss of the way of life I know.

as you later mentioned its the vulnerable who end up in trouble here, but they aren't stupid, they are just unfortunate. no standard bank will ever lend to them, and sometimes people get into a jam that only a pay-day loan will fix. and I too despise the interest rates, and the horrible future of worry and constant debt one of these things can bring upon people, but sometimes there are no other options, these people aren't stupid.

Reply
Squeamish Kate link
23/7/2012 10:15:19 pm

I think we all agree it's a total crime that for some people this is the absolute only option and the fact the ads are ASA approved is even worse.

Squeamish Louise link
23/7/2012 02:10:33 am

Interesting point about how your upbringing influences reactions. My dad has always worked very long hours, but when I was young he would be home more often than not to read us a bedtime story/ play us a song on the piano. I rmember the one birthday party he had to miss when travelling for work as it was such an anomaly. Looking back I have no idea how he did it - I suspect he must have worked after putting us to bed, or maybe he increased his hours as we got older. Certainly as a 6th-form student I would get up at 5am to work on an assignment, or come home from a night out at 2am, and often find him up working!

Maybe that's why I find the ad so offensive - my parents both went out of their way not to miss bedtimes when we were little and I appreciate it.

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