Best of Blog Challenge 2009 – Ad

As the penultimate topic for Gwen Bell’s Best of Blog Challenge 2009, the topic is “Ad” with the topic starter: “What advertisement made you think this year?”

And, in thinking about how to respond to this topic, I decided that I would rather talk about what is wrong with advertising these days, rather than which ONE ad caught my eye or made me pause and take note.

Because, in reality, I can’t think of any ads that DID get me to think, except for the ones that made me think, “What on earth were they thinking???”

For instance, this gem by Burger King ran afoul of women’s groups and rightly so!!!  I mean, this is exactly the kind of crass, sexist crap that Madison Avenue so desperately wants us to believe is “ok”.  Now, I’m certainly no prude and I enjoy a good joke or play on words.  Even crude language humor is fine by me, generally.  But, this goes too far, in my opinion. Not only does it use a sexist play on words, but a juxtaposition of the woman and the sandwich, implying a sexual act.  And, the look on her face does not leave one thinking she’s about to enjoy the sandwich, leaving the viewer to wonder if the sandwich is even appetizing. But, sadly, this is becoming the “norm” for advertising.  Sex sells.  Exploitation sells.  And, quite frankly, I’ve had enough of it.

While researching this post, I came across this ad for a Nintendo Wiiware game called “Super Meat Boy”. However, the ad text is a fine example of another inappropriate type of advertising. Using an evil person from history to sell a video game? Really? Hitler is hardly an appropriate role model or even personage to compare against. I mean, it may be true that he was a vegetarian, but certainly, not all vegetarians are like Hitler. That’s just ridiculous. According to this post the ad was pulled almost immediately.

Lastly, there was THIS ad from a Brazilian ad agency requested by the Brazilian WWF chapter and run, strangely enough, in Israel of all places. Apparently, they were trying to say that mother nature is far more destructive than the events of September 11, 2001 and that donating money to the World Wildlife Fund will help protect us somehow? I thought the WWF was meant to protect animals FROM us, not the other way around? You can read more about the details of this ad and the controversy here.

Basically, I’m just wondering how far Madison Avenue will go to keep us interested in buying stuff?  I mean, the Romans resorted to blood sport to entertain the masses and keep them fat, dumb and happy.  Based on some of these images, it seems that we might be only a few steps behind the Romans on the same path.  Let’s hope that history has a lesson for society AND Madison Avenue and they pull up short.  Otherwise, I fear advertising will only get worse.

Sorry for the downer today folks.  Peace to you all!