But are these areas being specifically targeted by arrogant creatives in agencies trying to stand out and milk the maximum PR out of a campaign, or is this just another example of supposed ‘Political Correctness’ and people being offended because they believe they should be offended?

 

On the DDB Brasil Ad ‘Dabitch’ on his Adland blog tries to put things in perspective by talking about previous examples of 9/11 style advertising that haven’t quite sparked an outrage of this scale and pointing out “some ad agencies like to use the dramatic images of the burning twin towers to compare death tolls, as a way of making much larger numbers pain and suffering more tangible to the viewer.” I suppose it’s all in the delivery and tone of the advert. Thank god for DDB that they didn’t try and involve comedy in the delivery as several other examples that ‘Dabitch’ points out, did. 

 

Comedy can be a good way of handling ads in sectors that are themselves controversial rather than them containing controversial material in themselves (borderline with some of the WKD ads…). Alcohol is a good example of this with most of the major brands creating humerous spots. Carlsberg, Carling, Fosters, WKD, the list goes on. Despite the BMA attacking The ASA has backed the Drinks industry over advertising standards after claims they online drinks advertising in particular was causing an increase in underage drinking. Oil companies like Shell are constantly under fire for enviromental reasons but as a brand, simply keeping your head down isn’t the best action for growth.

 

Even health campaigns can get it in the neck with an anti-Aids advertising campaign in Germany coming under fire recently for using dictators like Hitler and Saddam Hussein for “likening Aids sufferers to mass murderers”.  The rights and wrongs of this campaign aside you can’t argue it’ll be noticed.

I recently stumbled across a banner ad on Digital Spy which claimed to contain an interactive intelligence test. What they in fact used was a colourblindness test which asked to “See how intelligent you are by telling us what number you see.” I’m colourblind and to be honest found this quite insulting. Now, I’m firmly of the opinion that whoever created this was most likely and an idiot rather than actually trying to get a click out of me through inspiring me to some sort of righteous indignation, but ad agencies are surely just as guilty of misjudging their audience slightly. 

Creatives will likely always try and push the envelope but is developing an ad that some individuals or groups will find offensive the best way to maximise exposure for your brand or is it just another way of sticking two fingers up at the world and shouting “look how mis-understood yet creative I am”?

Where would you rather be, working for the safe brand using controversial techniques or be the acceptable face of a brand under fire?