Why A Duck, you mean the ol’ Grim Reaper ad?
For those not familiar, the ad aired in the mid-80s, IIRC. Showed the Grim Reaper, scythe and all, at a bowling alley. The pins he was knocking over were people of various descriptions - different ages, etc. The point to the ads was that HIV doesn’t discriminate, and that nobody’s immune. There was a bit of hue and cry, because one of the “pins” was a child.
I’ll have a VB for you tonight. There must be somewhere you can order 'em over the net.
Umm, the name’s Duckster and not Why A Duck. We’re two different critters. 
Haven’t found a legitimate way to get VB in the States. Maybe cuz the export arm doesn’t want outsider to know.
As far as I understand it, ads don’t get pulled from TV here unless someone complains to FACTS (Federation of Australian Commercial TV Stations) or unless they contravene the Broadcasting Act (as opposed to TV programmes themselves which have been known to be pulled mid-telecast at the whim of the station owner).
I noticed last night that references to Joh Bailey’s sexuality have been deleted from the current Sunsilk ad, and I remember a very funny Smith chips ad of a couple of years ago (an animated ad featuring a busload of Asian tourists) being pulled suddenly.
I’m not sure that ads like the “bugger” campaign would air during family viewing time elsewhere, they’d probably be restricted to adult timeslots as were the Cleo ads of a few years ago which implied the male was sporting an erection under the satin sheets.
Does anyone remember which car ad it was a year or two ago which implied that the male was impotent until he went out for a drive in car X?
I suspect that rather than our censorship laws being less restrictive than elsewhere, we’re just offended by different things and that is reflected in both the design of advertising campaign here and the manner in which complaints about advertisements are handled.
FTR - my favourite ad campaign which got pulled off the air was the Cotton tampons “you wish” campaign in which all these macho construction workers whinged about the trials of menstruation. Wonder whose sensibilities that one offended.
Nutty Brits.
A couple of years back someone posted a link to a Dutch commercial that was promoting English classess by having a nuclear family in a car strumming along to a techno song featuring the immortal lyrics “I want to f— you in the ass”.
The impotence-car thing… I could be wrong, but I think it was a Camry ad mum… whatever the car, it was a pretty pathetic basis for a commercial.
You guys think our ads are risque? Have you SEEN the ads some of the Nordic countries get? rowl Those would never see the light of day here…
Y’know what this means; I’m gonna have to drink more beer, dedicating it to the right poster this time.
Colour me embarrassed…
I’ve always been told by friends returning from Australia that it is actually quite a conservative country. Although that really has very little to do with whether or not you can see tits on TV, I guess.
Someone here mentioned some very graphic anti-drunk driving/anti-speeding ads. I’ve never seen them inthe States, but I saw a couple in the UK. There’s one where you see a car driving along a residential street and the announcer says “this car is going 30 miles per hour.” Then all the action stops as the announcer says “A car applying its brakes at 25 miles per hour here…” then the action begins again for a second and then stops again as the announcer says “…would have stopped HERE.” Then the action starts again and almost IMMEDIATELY a child shows up in the car’s path and is quite graphically thrown across the hood.
The other one I saw is of a mother and her son and daughter getting into the car in the morning. The daughter sits in the passenger seat and the son sits in the back behind his mother. “Like most people,” the announcer says, “Peggy Stevens knew her killer very well.” The whole time they’re driving along the woman keeps watching a suspicious-looking van following them in the rear-view mirror. As she’s looking at the mirror and not the road, her daughter screams “Mom, look out!” She turns her attention back to the road just in time to see another car, which she hits at top speed. She and her daughter are wearing their seat belts and would be unhurt, but her son was not wearing his and he flies forward and slams into the back of his mother’s head, killing her instantly. The last scene is of him sitting in the back seat in a daze with blood all over his face, while his sister looks at their dead mother and screams and screams and screams.
Terribly disturbing, and really makes an impression.
It make an even bigger impression if the mother and daughter were really hot and you could see their boobies.
When i read reports about things being censored, and taken off TV in US, it makes me laugh, because we have it so easy.
And then there is Canda with TSN’s censoring of WWF RAW that is just ridiculous.
Words fail me.
Redboss
That wasn’t a real commercial. It was funny, though.
Batz- Are you SURE that wasn’t a real commercial? I first saw it on German TV (RTL) during a program called “Der Dicksten Dinger” or something like that. It was one of these funniest commericials of the world-type programs. It was presented as an actual commercial with all the others; nothing indicated that it was a joke. If this was a joke, then I guess RTL got fooled as well by it. (Which, of course, is possible.)
Badtz (sorry about the first misspelling) -
Not only that, but it seems the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston would also have been fooled into thinking it’s a real commercial. I’m fairly certain that it’s legit…
…as am I. It’s for Berlitz, who are one of the largest private language schools. The ad is Belgian, although someone said it was Dutch. The ad is probably in Flemish, hence the confusion.
Yes - Cotton was about the only “sanpro” company that ever got it right. Them and the company that sold tampons in those cool little plastic zip-lock bags. Probably because they both had a USP (unique selling point) to focus on.
Unlike the other horrors: vagina twins, dog-flap-vagina, “slimming” tampon, cretinous life model…
You mean about the blood, or the boobies?
Possible hijack i.e. not about sex: There are two commericials in New Zealand that set out to make Americans look like idiots. One is for a bank, the other for a company selling fish products. If another nationality was lampooned in this way it would possibly be considered racist. I suppose Americans just consider it the not-so-good side of cultural imperialism. I’d like to know if any have seen these ads though.
Turkey bacon is bacon made of turker (well, duh…) It supposedly splatters less, which would help at all those nudist cook-outs you meat-eaters are holding.
There’s a great scene where a guy is standing behind a canvas back chair, moves to the side while the woman opens a hamper and takes out a thermos, which she uses to cover the guy’s crotch as he sits down.
How about the ad for the Nursing Mother’s Assosciation or some such? It shows a mum nursing her baby, and the baby does a voiceover, “Get ahead in life; suck up to the boss”.
It was briefly banned from children’s viewing time. I guess whoever censored it thought we don’t need kids knowing about the pervert women out there who stick their breasts in babies’ mouths!!!
Less reactionary heads prevailed and now the perversion is back on G rated telly.
God, I want those Big M and Chiko Roll ads back.
<my bold>
That’s unless they were Australian or British of course, or if it was an Aussie ad it’s just as likely they’d have been British or Kiwis. You wouldn’t think you were getting a raw deal if you saw the way Hollywood depicts the British from the target’s point of view.