Our first ad to discuss today hails from Cake Imagery Retouchers. Lets watch:
You'll notice first off, that the model here has had quite a bit of work done from Cake Imagery. Good job Cake! But was the joke taken a bit far? Is this too offensive or racy? If I could shrug on a blog, this is where I would do it. Of course some would say it's offensive, but everyone has something to say about everything and if we didn't offend anyone then our media would be plain black words (Times New Roman, 12pt, double spaced, no fancy graphic work) on white paper that were as intelligent as they were visually stimulating. I think those who would be offended, wouldn't be in the market to hire Cake Imagery anyway. After all, what's there to be offended about if you're in a business that hires retouchers? Your lively hood is probably based around making the shit of the world look pretty. So, if you're offended by this ad and you're looking for retouchers, you should probably get out of the business. That said, I think the ad is pretty clever. Of course it harps on some of the more disgusting aspects of our society, but maybe that makes it that much more genius. It's an ad subtly mocking those who it's targeting and for that, I say bravo!
Our next ad comes from Happydent Bubble Gum (before we go any further I suggest they change the name of their product, no need to explain). Let's take a look:
We'll first notice that this is a poster of Mahatma Gandhi made out of gum (there's another one of Mother Teresa. I'm surprised there isn't one of Jesus). My first thought, before considering it's offensiveness level, is why did you make a poster of Mahatma Gandhi out of gum? It just seems like a risk with no payoff. I digress, is it offensive? I'm not offended by it, but I'm a special case; I can see how others may be. Some (by some I mean most of the world) may be offended that a bubble gum company, which has no connection to Mahatma Gandhi or Mother Teresa, would choose to hijack the greatness of these historically mammoth do-gooders in an attempt to peddle their corporately backed bubble gum upon the masses of the world. I now see the connection, Mahatma Gandhi lead the largest hunger strike and peaceful protest in history in an attempt to free his people from imperial British rule just as Happydent bubble gum can free you from the stress of your day. I would generally rule a comparison of your company to the most wholesome people of the world a bad idea. If you don't push your customer away by offending them, you'll probably push them away by your stupidity, or perhaps your hubris. (Side note, apparently Happydent is an Indian company. Not sure if it changes much, but perhaps it gives some perspective).
Our third ad comes from the Norwegian Association of the Blind. Let's have a peak:
The first thing you'll notice is that this is not in English. Once you jump that language barrier it seems pretty obvious that this campaign didn't hit the eyes of the creative director or maybe he was blind (then again those Norwegians have some different social standards than us Yanks). Again, I'm not offended, but I would also never run this due to the millions of people that may be. Not to mention, this ad does nothing but make fun of blind people, I don't think it achieves its goal of persuading industries to hire blind people; if anything, it points out the reasons you shouldn't hire blind people. For that, I think this is a fairly stupid campaign. If I were blind and saw this, I would be highly offended; luckily for them that's impossible. Check minus!
Our fourth and final contest tonight comes from Kenneth Cole. Kenneth, take it away:
Ouch. Nice attempt to back peddle Ken, but using a nation of people's democratic revolution that caused nearly 300 deaths, many more injuries, and an immense loss of wealth in an attempt to sell your clothing, probably won't sell your clothing. In fact, you may just anger your clientele so much, that they are no longer your clientele; I see it took your PR staff two hours to tell you that, good work to all involved. Am I personally offended? No. Do I think that Kenneth Cole is an asshole? Pretty much. Let's give one check to offensive, one to stupid, and zero to brilliant. That leaves us with a total tally for the night of two offensives, two stupids, and one brilliant (but still a little offensive). BUT WAIT, there's more!
Our surprise contestant comes from Central Beheer insurance (of Norway again. Maybe someone should have a talk with those Norwegians). Let's have a look-see (try to ignore the first fifteen seconds of terrible video effects):
Good work Central Beheer. Let's give them a round of applause. Stereotyping the gay community, invoking creationism, and likening a gays to the end of humanity. If you didn't get the ad, which is possible because it's a bad ad, Eve has to call Central Beheer, because Adam is gay. I assume that this means Central Beheer will come take Adam away and replace him with a "better" straight version, so that the human race may continue. Overall, just a terrible ad; don't think that was money well spent. Ad aside, fairly offensive piece of media. At least the Cake Imagery ad was poking fun at our depravity as a culture in a piece of witty social commentary / advertising; this is just straight up making fun of homosexuals. So, once again. Good work Central Beheer! I think the overall winner tonight though is clearly Norway. Without you, what would civilized intellectual Americans have to be offended about? Oh, right, I forgot about ourselves.
Ciao!
