COMMENTS

Hmmm, the question of Morals and Advertising ethics. When do commercials go to far? With the Opel I'd say, on the edge, but not over. I could watch it with my girlfriend without her being completely mad at me. Ford however would definitively end up in my girlfriend causing me bodily harm for showing her disturbing images. And she’d be right. I think this commercial is about 3 years old and I remember the discussion back then. It was a viral that was supposedly an initiative by the advertising agency that Ford hadn’t agreed to. The ad did work though. Several forums ran the ad and fuelled the discussion that followed. (http://www.flabber.nl/archief/007796.php) I feel very strongly about Adthics. You should be able to sell your product without scaring or ‘hurting’ people. There is one exception. Several charities or community campaigns have to ‘horrible’ but please… schedule them when the little kids are vast asleep. They see enough hefty images as it is.

Posted by: Piet Wijs on 24 Apr 2007 | 04:28 pm

@Piet Wijs: Point taken... But what is it that makes a commercial go too far? Or do ad-companies cross the line on purpose to generate more rumour around the brand?

Posted by: Fresh Creation on 25 Apr 2007 | 08:52 am

I think they intended to illicit reaction, be it negative or positive. It all generates attention. Personally I think the commerical cross the line. Depiction of human violence is once thing. People seem to be okay with it since we see it in movie trailers all the time. Buy animal violence ususally hits a nerve, especially with me.

Posted by: electro^plankton on 25 Apr 2007 | 12:17 pm

I must admit that the Ford's ad is a little too strong. I mean, it gets the point, it fits the message the brand wanted to transmit... but they used a very direct image. Another problem rises: adults can like/accept this ad or not, and this is ok. But waht about some kid watching this ad ? I think it's too late to hope the kid would cry for the cat because he thinks it's wrong. I'd rather suppose the kid wouldn't mind or worst, would try to emulate that "show". Maybe I'm too negative..

Posted by: Longinus on 25 Apr 2007 | 06:14 pm

Just to fan the flame, here are a few blatant attempts to dishonour that heavenly creature the pigeon: [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYO0GapAjv0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYO0GapAjv0[/url] [url=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6088485812246020197]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6088485812246020197[/url] [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9SgeyyfYv0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9SgeyyfYv0[/url] [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2xfn83ABk0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2xfn83ABk0[/url] [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxGCFv1SKRQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxGCFv1SKRQ[/url] Too far? Too silly? Too Copied? These two are great... The second pigeon must have seen the SportKa ad! [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vbohoyfM5o]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vbohoyfM5o[/url] [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1vJZ-qYz6E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1vJZ-qYz6E[/url]

Posted by: Piet Wijs on 26 Apr 2007 | 09:06 am

@Piet: Thanks for the video-links. It's strange, but I can appreciate the pigeon being killed by the Ford Ka (as a joke I mean), but the cat being killed by the Ka is not funny to me. I guess the reason is that the pigeon is killed quickly and it takes some time before the cat is killed (and his head is chopped off).... The proof that there's a thin line between okay and not okay when it comes to humour in commercials.

Posted by: Fresh Creation on 27 Apr 2007 | 08:40 am

@Longinus: I think in general kids sense what is the right and what is the wrong thing to do. But it's the exceptions that make news headlines.

Posted by: Fresh Creation on 27 Apr 2007 | 08:42 am

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