Marmite are facing a ban over their latest ad thanks to 250 lonely people who have nothing better to do than moan to the Advertising Standards Authority. Adam & Eve DDB are behind the ad, which, if you ask me, is funny and perfectly on target with Marmite as a brand.
I hate the stuff. Good thing I live in Denmark where it's banned.
Tell me - what do you see when you look at this ad?
A girl sitting on a railway track, looking a bit sad (and slightly daft) - maybe she lost her way, maybe she lost her right eyeball, maybe she just missed her train and is just feeling a bit deflated, or maybe, as the ASA would have it, she's perched in an outrageously dangerous location, seconds away from being squashed into oblivion by a train she wouldn't hear, see or feel as it came careering along the tracks.
Yes, this ad from Miu Miu featuring Hailee Steinfeld has become the latest ad banned by the ASA after receiving one complaint saying the ad suggesting youth suicide. Yes, you did read that. The good old ASA rejected the idea that it suggested youth suicide but did agree to pull the ad on account of the fact it showed a young, impressionable girl in an unsafe location.
I don't even know where to start with this, and I'm not even sure I can be bothered to do a Google for images that also place people in 'unsafe locations', like, I don't know, a car.
Do you think it's the same one person complaining every time? Does anyone check these things?
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.