I saw an advertisement a few weeks ago online that, in my opinion, was rather offensive in a way that is beyond the scope of my question. Suffice it to say, the offensiveness did not directly involve sexual content or violence, but rather to an analogy that I thought was highly denigrating. Since it was an internet ad I doubt that the FCC is going to want to step in, doubly so because the problem was not with sex or violence. I will refrain from listing the company name to protect the insensitive morons.
Anyway, I do business regularly with this company (in fact, I have an account with them). I have ruminated over the idea of walking in to a local office and kicking up a fuss, telling them how angry I am and that if they don’t do something immediately I am going to a competitor, but then I also considered it from the potential perspective of the other side and thought of how I could end up verbally abusing a bunch of minimum-wage retail drones that don’t make advertising decisions and that many not have the authority to pull the ad or give me “sorry, please don’t go” discounts on future products or services or otherwise make it economically worth my while to stay with them.
What good could come of this?
What about writing a letter to corporate HQ? Does that ever work? Have you (or has anyone you know of or have heard of) succeeded in getting a company to change its ways based on such a letter?
Kind of hard to form an opinion when we don’t know the context of the advert.
Denigrating towards men or women ? Reason I ask is because men (white men) in commericials have been the butt of jokes, made fun of, emasculated for some time now. So it’s nothing new.
I wrote an email to the SPCA objecting to those tearjerker spots they were running with the disturbing pictures of abused/neglected animals. Got back a very polite attempted defense of the ads, but I suspect I was not the only one that complained. Haven’t seen one of those ads in a long time, either…
Okay, I’ll tell. The advertisement involved a person in a Twilight Zone type situation where their entire family had been replaced by strangers. The person was encouraged to get to know the family that had been imposed on them, because hey, they are decent people. The business context/analogy was that the company in question had been in a spree of buying smaller companies, and if you were a customer of one of the bought-out companies, please don’t go, get to know your new family.
The offensive part was that they were making this analogy, as if people had the right to abandon and sell off their spouse or children to the highest bidder, and that the spouse or kids that were sold should just deal with it.
Well, this part reminds me of the old WC Fields joke about prostitutes and price. You are morally greatly offended but you might still stay if they make it worth your while? :rolleyes:
I’m offended by the latest Verizon ad direction – a Martin Luther King comparison, and a product depiction resembling a Hindu god. I won’t give them my business because of it but I can’t imagine me telling them I won’t be a customer will make any difference.
How do you make it through… well, life? I mean I’ve got to assume you don’t own a television or a computer (despite the fact that you’re posting on the Dope) and that you live in an isolated log cabin in the woods somewhere if the above is enough to offend you. I mean, just from your OP I knew this was going to be recreational outrage but really? I was genuinely surprised by what the ad actually turned out to be. And really, you want to march into their office and complain? The thought of contacting the FCC even crossed your mind (fyi, the FCC wouldn’t just not “want to step in”, they couldn’t at all- you said yourself this was an internet ad)? Really?
Really?
I feel like I’m on crazy pills. Am I being wooshed?
AClockworkMelon woke this morning in a normal world. A world where he understood the rules. A world where his fellow man thought as he thought. But now he is lost in a labyrinth of strange words and stranger ideas, a world in which a whimsical commercial can lead to an outpouring of rage. He is lost…
Back when I was in marketing, I can tell you that my clients considered every single complaint about their ads. Whether they took any action depended on a number of factors.
Did the complainer come off as rational or a nutjob?
Was the complaint factually correct, or was it something the complainer misunderstood, or got mixed up with another ad?
Did the company actually run the ad? (You’d be surprised how many people complain to the wrong company.)
Was the complaint about something that could actually upset reasonable customers (for example, a consistant lack of women or minorities in the ads, or an unnoticed sexual innuendo.)
Did the ad itself have a limited life (“nothing we can do about it now, but let’s remember this for next time”), or was it intended to run for a long time?
If you choose to complain, and you find the right person to complain to, I’m reasonably sure your complaint will be considered. But being considered and having someone agree with you are totally different things.
Quite simply, practically every ad out there is going to offend somebody. A joke or situation which 99.99% of people find perfectly reasonable will be goring somebody’s favorite ox. Even if this bothers you tremendously, you may need to realize that your sensibilities on this issue may be outside the norm.
The OP is best off addressing his concerns to the company’s management – the guys at the local office likely have absolutely nothing to do with creating that advertising, and quite possibly won’t even bother to pass a complaint along.
Even then, as kunilou notes – if you’re the only person complaining about this ad (or one of a very small number), odds are that it won’t have any effect. Don’t be surprised if the net reaction is “thank you for your concern.” Getting some sort of compensation or incentive to stay a customer would be incredibly unlikely, unless you happen to be an extremely important customer (i.e., one of their highest-spending customers).
I don’t get this analogy at all. The family in question is not the person’s actual family, but a group of strangers assigned to him without his consent. He has no moral (or probably legal) obligation to remain with them, and has every right to abandon them. The fact that they are pleading with him not to leave implies that they know he has every right to.
You’ve read into this ad the quoted portion entirely on your own. I have seen the ad you’re referencing, and I think you’re overreacting and/or completely misunderstanding the point of the commercial.
Yet another person that fails to understand how analogies work. You’re aware that when one says “Time flies like an arrow,” it doesn’t imply that time is used to hunt wild game, aren’t you?
Well I stopped buying Labatt beer because I found a commercial obnoxious. I never wrote the company although I should have, but it was maybe 15 years ago. It made fun of an elderly immigrant woman (maybe Polish) who was cleaning johns and speaking with a thick accent. I no longer remember, nor can I imagine, what this could have had to do with selling beer.
In general, beer ads are pretty lame. Usually male-bonding and antifeminist. Don’t they want to sell to women?