Archive for September, 2009
September 25th, 2009
The news:
Snickers, a brand owned by Mars produced a global TV ad, which interestingly, only created a scandal in the United States. The Human Rights Campaign, an American gay rights group, judged it homophobic and the campaign was pulled – not just in the US but globally. Despite the fact that the ASA in the UK hardly received any complaints, and UK consumers found the ad amusing Mars still pulled the plug here. The spot features the A Team’s much-loved Mr. T in a 4×4 firing Snickers at a speed walker after launching the tirade, “You’re a disgrace to the man race. It’s time to teach you to run like a real man.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bUxi_Eo6fU
September 3rd, 2009
Printed only once in a local Brazilian newspaper, now criticized globally via the web. A damaging example of the power of digital and its sometimes unintended effect on brands.
The news:
An ad made by DDB Brazil for WWF was printed only once in late 2008, in a small local paper in Sao Paolo before being pulled. The ad shows a shocking image of lower Manhattan, the World Trade Centre still standing, surrounded by airplanes flying toward the city. This image was made to illustrate the number of lives lost in the 2004 Asian tsunami, which was much greater than those lost in the terrorist attack in 2001. A video including this image was submitted to this years ‘One Show’ in New York and months after the ad was pulled a blogger has came across the full video showing the events of 9/11 followed by this image on the show’s archives. The blogger posted it online and the image has spread fast around the blogosphere causing a vicious and angry uproar with posts, comments and tweets circulating the news. Following these events both DDB Brazil and WWF have issued statements on their websites apologising for the ad and stating that it was due to the “inexperience of some professionals on both sides and not bad faith or disrespect toward American suffering” that the ad was ever released. Both companies deny any involvement with the making of the video claiming it was made by an unknown source that used their image.