Prattle & Jaw

Two blogs about a whole lot of nothing

Filtering by Category: Advertising

There's Decent and Then There's Decent

I'm sick to death of reading about adverts being banned because of 10 angry calls (which means 10 sad and lonely people who are probably religious fundamentalists or just plain stupid), or 5 angry calls, or in these cases, one and no angry calls.

The Lynx Excite advert was pulled from South Africa because one guy complained about, "the idea that angels would forsake their divinity for aerosol cologne." Jesu - sorry - holy moly. Get a grip. 

This recent Marc Jacobs advert for his new fragrance Oh Lola was pulled after the U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority deemed it too, well too raunchy basically. The fragrance's manufacturer, Coty U.K., told the ASA it had received no complaints at all, and neither did ES Magazine nor The Sunday Times Style Magazine when they ran the ad. It's all getting a bit out of hand, if you ask me.

What really frustrates me is that this kind of stuff gets banned while absolute shit still gets made and approved. If they have watchdogs that strive to "ensure ads are legal, decent, honest and truthful" the least they could do is add 'creative' or 'good' to that list. Come to think of it, 'decent' does the job but I very much doubt they mean it in that way. 

I mean....what the....it's as if they're trying to be Anthony and Sharon who yes, were cheesy, but I have a faint memory of being totally ecstatic when they finally kissed in 1989.

Anyway, the point being, if adverts must be decent enough to be on TV or in magazines, then they should also be decent enough. 

Christmas

I have a habit of posting this ad every year. It's my favourite Christmas advert (not advert for Christmas, you understand). I still laugh when I see it. The quality isn't so hot, so you have to pay attention. It's the shopper receiving treatment for cramp, the woman looking totally and utterly lost, and the woman pouring the water over her head that do it for me. I know it's early but I saw my first Christmas themed CD ad last night, so what the hell. 

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