# Was I right to complain, or am I a fussy busybody? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 8, 2007, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-i-right-to-complain-or-am-i-a-fussy-busybody/387144 "2007-01-08T14:13:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-i-right-to-complain-or-am-i-a-fussy-busybody/387144/21 "2007-01-08T18:10:57Z")
I could go either way. On the one hand, I think it’s a pretty good ad – compelling and not soon forgotten. On the other hand, it _is_ a bit graphic. I think the real issue is the setting of the ad – billboard, visible by everyone, as opposed to magazine ad, tailored to a certain demographic. Come to think of it, you were probably right to complain, if only for that reason. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-i-right-to-complain-or-am-i-a-fussy-busybody/387144/22 "2007-01-08T19:01:01Z")
I am reminded of the story about the kid that was kept inside protected for his first 21 years. He came out on his 21st Birthday and died from shock. Just because 50,000 Frenchmen do it does not make it right. So this can go either way. You have your rights and should use them. You need to try to change the laws because ‘common sense’ will never be followed when money, a cause, or fanaticisms are involved. If I really felt my children should not see something that was legal to be in public, it is MY responsibility to take another route. All laws should not be to protect the minority from the majority. Needs to be the other way round about 50% of the time IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-i-right-to-complain-or-am-i-a-fussy-busybody/387144/23 "2007-01-08T19:29:50Z")
[QUOTE=Lizard] The bolded part above sounds like a WAG to me. How do you know? There are other ways to advertise besides using a fish hook through a child’s mouth; obviously shock was the desired effect. Maybe the OP’s kids won’t have permanent damage from this, but that doesn’t mean the creators of the ad didn’t do something pretty sleazy, and counter-productive. [/QUOTE] Well, sure it’s a guess. I didn’t contact the agency. However, if enough people complained, I think they’d pull the ad, regardless of whether or not they think it’s in good taste. They’re not out to offend. They want to communicate. It’s still there, so it sure looks like most people aren’t complaining. By the way, I have no problem with writing a letter. It’s the OP’s right to do so. I was not offended by the ad. He is. That’s what makes the world go 'round. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-i-right-to-complain-or-am-i-a-fussy-busybody/387144/24 "2007-01-08T19:40:05Z")
I realize that second-hand smoke is not exactly the subject of the billboards, but doesn’t the very idea of an anti-smoking billboard seem self-contradictory? I mean, here they are complaining about a voluntary environmental pollutants, and using one of the most crass and objectionable forms of visual pollution to get their point across. I think Big Tobacco wins this round. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-i-right-to-complain-or-am-i-a-fussy-busybody/387144/25 "2007-01-08T20:21:12Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] Driving into town on the weekend, we went past a large roadside billboard carrying a poster for an organisation called Smokefree (presumably an anti-smoking charity or some such) The ad consisted of a large, prominent head-and-shoulders picture of a child, apparently pierced through the cheek by a large, vicious-looking fishing hook, with tension pulling the cheek out in what looked like quite a painful way. My two children (aged 8 and 10) were sickened and shocked almost to tears by the image - they were still talking about it in a worried way at bedtime, despite my assurances that it was a fake image which had been made to make some kind of analogy. Now, I’m sure no actual children were hooked in the mouth, but that’s hardly the point - if the intention was to make some point about cigarettes, it failed - I don’t think there was any accompanying text, or if there was, none of us noticed it, but anyway, it’s a disturbing and unnecessarily graphic image - I don’t think my kids should have been confronted by it in a public space. So I wrote a letter of complaint to the Advertising Standards Agency. Am I being oversensitive? [/QUOTE] No. Showing children in pain is _not_ an advertising technique that should ever be used. I remember this extremely horrible radio campaign that had some woman berating her child for not knocking down a bee’s nest or something (I think it was a PSA about something - not smoking?). Anyway, the kid was wailing in fear, Mom was berating the kid to get the bees, and by the end of the spot the kid was getting stung. **I** was calling the radio station asking them what the fuck they think they were doing, using child abuse as a means to push an agenda? The shell-shocked lady at the other end mentioned that the number of calls that came in that day numbered in the _hundreds_ and now all she was doing was tallying up the protest calls. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-i-right-to-complain-or-am-i-a-fussy-busybody/387144/26 "2007-01-08T20:29:52Z")
It’s hard to put a slow agonizing death from cancer on a billboard. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-i-right-to-complain-or-am-i-a-fussy-busybody/387144/27 "2007-01-08T20:33:07Z")
[QUOTE=JohnT] No. Showing children in pain is _not_ an advertising technique that should ever be used. [/QUOTE] I don’t know about not _ever_, but not like this. If you’re going to do it and be effective, show a low birth weight preemie on a vent (that’s from an Australian campaign, I think) or a weeping ear infection or some sort of condition that’s actually \*caused \*by parental smoking. I get metaphors, but I just think this one is stupid and offensive. ---
**Author:** ![Velma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/85e7bf/32.png) [@Velma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velma)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-i-right-to-complain-or-am-i-a-fussy-busybody/387144/28 "2007-01-08T21:40:58Z")
I agree that the image is disturbing. While I don’t find it offensive per se, I do think it is unnecessary. I think shock and graphic images have their place, for example, I would not have a problem with a campaign showing actual effects of smoking, like others have said. There are better ways to get people’s attention. I doubt your child is going to see a cigarette when he is 16 and say to himself, wow, I won’t smoke because I remember that horrible hook face I saw when I was little! The image itself has nothing to do with smoking. I don’t think you are overreacting. I know there are worse images on the news, but to me, context is everything. Showing a graphic image on the news because it is what really happened in the world that day is different than showing a graphic image just to shock people. And even on the news, particularly graphic images are usually preceded with a warning. But I admit I don’t like how far advertising is going in general. I have no problem with people seeing what they wish to see, I just wish in cases like this when people are just walking or driving around, and have no real ability to choose not to see the ad, that companies would be a little more thoughtful about what they put up. So I think writing is a good idea. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2007, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-i-right-to-complain-or-am-i-a-fussy-busybody/387144/29 "2007-01-12T00:04:32Z")
Followup: The ASA wrote to me, mostly just acknowledging my complaint, but implicit in the text of the letter is the fact that lots of other people have also complained. There is a related TV advert which I saw last night - it involves a man working in an office suddenly getting hooked in the mouth and being dragged at length, kicking and panicking, out of the building, where it changes to a shot of him smoking. It’s quite a disturbing sequence, but it was on at 11pm or something, so I don’t really have a problem with it. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2007, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-i-right-to-complain-or-am-i-a-fussy-busybody/387144/30 "2007-05-16T07:33:24Z")
Resurrecting this thread to post the conclusion (hope that’s OK). I was one of 774 people who complained about this advertisement campaign. The complaint was upheld on more or less the same grounds I complained - that it was untargeted and that it was gratuitously disturbing. [Link](http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_42557.htm) However, the action ‘We told them not to do it again’ seems… well… a little impotent. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2007, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-i-right-to-complain-or-am-i-a-fussy-busybody/387144/31 "2007-05-16T08:13:13Z")
[QUOTE=NurseCarmen] It’s hard to put a slow agonizing death from cancer on a billboard. [/QUOTE] And not nearly as catchy. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2007, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-i-right-to-complain-or-am-i-a-fussy-busybody/387144/32 "2007-05-16T13:29:34Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] \ My two children (aged 8 and 10) were sickened and shocked almost to tears by the image - they were still talking about it in a worried way at bedtime, despite my assurances that it was a fake image which had been made to make some kind of analogy. \ [/QUOTE] Your kids are weenies. Almost to tears? Wow, what would they do if they saw somebody skin their knee in the playground? No offence, but I’m sure they’re going to see alot more sickening and shocking things in person during their young lives. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2007, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-i-right-to-complain-or-am-i-a-fussy-busybody/387144/33 "2007-05-16T13:39:41Z")
Better a weenie than a hardened (can’t use the word I want in this forum). Isn’t it ok for little kids to be little kids? And care about stuff? Geez. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2007, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-i-right-to-complain-or-am-i-a-fussy-busybody/387144/34 "2007-05-16T13:46:14Z")
Well, crap! What am I doing wrong as a parent? Had my kids seen that at that age they’d be like: “Whoa! cool! check it out!!” :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2007, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-i-right-to-complain-or-am-i-a-fussy-busybody/387144/35 "2007-05-16T13:48:15Z")
[QUOTE=kayT] Better a weenie than a hardened (can’t use the word I want in this forum). Isn’t it ok for little kids to be little kids? And care about stuff? Geez. [/QUOTE] You’re right; it’s been nagging me since I posted it. It was unwarranted. My apologies. I would have expected 8-10 year-olds to see it, say “Ewww!”, and move on. I was insensitive at best. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2007, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-i-right-to-complain-or-am-i-a-fussy-busybody/387144/36 "2007-05-16T13:57:02Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] My two children (aged 8 and 10) were sickened and shocked almost to tears by the image - they were still talking about it in a worried way at bedtime, despite my assurances that it was a fake image which had been made to make some kind of analogy. [/QUOTE] Yes, but have they quit smoking? 😉 [QUOTE=Mangetout] So I wrote a letter of complaint to the Advertising Standards Agency. Am I being oversensitive? [/QUOTE] Personally, I have a hard time seeing _anything_ done with your children’s best interest in mind being wrong. They are lucky to have a caring parent. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-i-right-to-complain-or-am-i-a-fussy-busybody/387144/37 "2007-05-17T16:08:06Z")
It’s hard to say if you’re right to object. I agree the image is disturbing and kids probably shouldn’t see it unless they want to. On the other hand, the week of September 11 2001, more than twice as many Americans died from cigarette smoking as from terrorism. There are no more threatening issues in the USA than smoking. The way we somehow set this aside through some kind of practical mutual agreement is more disturbing than the billboard. Outside the USA, smoking cessation and awareness is even worse. I don’t feel like any of my instincts about how to behave help me handle this one properly. I’m cast adrift… ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-i-right-to-complain-or-am-i-a-fussy-busybody/387144/38 "2007-05-17T16:17:55Z")
egads, that is disgusting! then again, I can rarely watch the evening news. I must have a lower gore tolerance than most. ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-i-right-to-complain-or-am-i-a-fussy-busybody/387144/39 "2007-05-17T16:32:25Z")
I wonder if the OP ever wrote the Advertising Standards Agency when tobacco ads are/were (depending on country?) displayed on billboards. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-i-right-to-complain-or-am-i-a-fussy-busybody/387144.md?page=1)