If the name “swine flu” offends some Muslims and Jews and their sensetivities to pork, how do you think this gelato ad will weather in Catholic communities?
Call me crazy, but I don’t think people are going to be too keen on this baby–and not only because it’s not that clever. This is the sort of thing that agencies should just see coming.
I can’t imagine a bunch of copywriters in a boardroom thinking that this will slide under the table. Granted, controversy garners attention to the product, but you might as well post a billboard that says: “SEX! Now that I got your attention, buy this gelato”. Nyuk nyuk nyuk.
Sometimes advertisers let me down. These people are supposed to be society’s creatives. I think of big-shot agencies that take in stacks of portfolios every week, and then I see ads like this, and I am convinced that getting in to commercial advertising must be all about who you know.
I expect this in a brainstorming session, sure, but I also expect everyone else in the room to promptly belittle the idea and then move on.
Anyway religous fanatics, have at it. They’re probably counting on your shock and the power of your subsequent word of mouth promotion. Guh.
May 7, 2009 at 10:12 am
If the ‘Mommy Bloggers’ went ballistic over an ad that mentioned a contraption for carrying babies (the baby-sling… and the use of which can cause back pain, hence the ad for Motrin) then this is going to get nuked.
Even if they try to argue that the couple were dressed for a costume party and the ad is not intended to suggest that such behaviour goes on in the church, that’s exactly what will be insinuated.
oh, and I noticed that you used the term “Swine flu”. We’ve been told not to use that, but rather to call it H1N1 flu. I’m all for that because if you replace the ‘1’s with ‘i’s you get Hini, which can be pronounced Hi-nee… What’s worse? Swine flu or Hiney flu?
May 7, 2009 at 4:48 pm
I choose to ignore it the way I chose to ignore Chris Crocker. Then it will go away.
May 7, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Wait – ’swine’ flu is an offensive term? How? Maybe to actual pigs, but it’s not offensive to people. *sigh* I hate political correctness.
May 7, 2009 at 8:09 pm
I think people don’t want to call it swine flu because there has yet to be any evidence that the flu was in any way contracted from pigs. It was named swine flu because it is most similar to the actual swine flu (that pigs get) in it’s genetic make up.
So, it’s not about political correctness, just correctness.
May 8, 2009 at 10:37 am
@PRJack: you realise I call it Hini flu now, right?
@Kathryn: Political correctness is so tricky. On one hand, it has the ability to censor, and, in the meantime, avoid addressing important issues. That said, if it makes people aware of hurtful prejudices, I would say P.C. is incredibly
useful.
@Alex: Correct or incorrect, Jewish and Muslim groups were still offended by the term ’swine’–an irritating and self-indulgent outrage.
May 8, 2009 at 11:55 pm
@Jen: I did not know that! I apologize. I would never have thought it was a political thing.
May 15, 2009 at 11:51 am
I’m guessing that there won’t be any “shock and outrage” from the Catholics because Madonna and Sinead O’Connor instigated a few years of hyper-media attention on pissed off Catholics, now gone the way of most excessively covered topics, which is to say there probably aren’t any “numbers” to gain by giving this excessive media attention. Which, like you, makes me wonder who the idiots were that came up with this ad. Talk about missing your mark. I’d like to see the research behind this.