There is an advertisement running on CNN that suggests sexual harrassement in the office is imminent.The female victim breathes a sigh of relief when the three perpetrators reveal a birthday wish scrawled on their bellies and captures the event on her cell phone.I guess the message can be seen from different angles ie her assailents would be easily identified if a crime were committed, or the office guys are just having a little fun.I realize this is way off topic but I,ve never seen this sort of advertisement where a `gang rape´ is implied.Any thoughts? Mike
What company is running the ad, Mike? I’d like to see it for myself but it hasn’t appeared on anything I’ve been watching lately.
John,its a Nokia commercial if thats what you mean..I dont know what the production company is.Its possible it may even be aired for a European audience (I live in Vienna) where shock tolerence seems to be higher than other parts of the globe. Mike
I haven’t seen it in the US, and from what you’ve said, I suspecy that the major networks would be very chary of running it. I can imagine that some of the cable nets might, but I doubt that a US ad agency would want to chance it.
This has NO place here.
On 2002-10-20 09:11, madguy wrote:
This has NO place here.
If you have a problem with it,simply ignore it.OT posts are allowed and I think this has interest.It only seems that many forumites outside of Europe may not see the advertisement and will be unable to comment,in which case the thread will dissapear in a few days anyway.CNN broadcasts internationaly and I assumed it would be seen everywhere…this seems to not be the case.Perhaps you could say why this has no place here, as I would be very interested to know. Mike
Mike, he might mean that an ad like that has no place in America. Obviously, he’ll have to confirm if that’s what he means.
You did interpret me right earlier.
There’s a Two-Tone record by Rhodda and Special AKA called ‘The Boiler’ in which she re-enacts a rape. It’s absolutely chilling and, I think, ought to be heard by everybody.
On 2002-10-20 12:09, Wombat wrote:
Mike, he might mean that an ad like that has no place in America. Obviously, he’ll have to confirm if that’s what he means.You did interpret me right earlier.
There’s a Two-Tone record by Rhodda and Special AKA called ‘The Boiler’ in which she re-enacts a rape. It’s absolutely chilling and, I think, ought to be heard by everybody.
You were right saying I meant here in the USA. But I think commercials and “commercial” music are no place to arouse everyones’ political or moral consciousness.
~Larry
On 2002-10-21 09:55, madguy wrote:
On 2002-10-20 12:09, Wombat wrote:
Mike, he might mean that an ad like that has no place in America. Obviously, he’ll have to confirm if that’s what he means.You did interpret me right earlier.
There’s a Two-Tone record by Rhodda and Special AKA called ‘The Boiler’ in which she re-enacts a rape. It’s absolutely chilling and, I think, ought to be heard by everybody.
You were right saying I meant here in the USA. But I think commercials and “commercial” music are no place to arouse everyones’ political or moral consciousness.
~Larry
Larry, I imagine that people on this board could argue about the legitimacy of connecting politics, morals and music until the cows come home without agreeing. But those who think it inappropriate have the whole tradition of Irish rebel song and more or less explicit moral condemnation contained therein to explain away as misguided. I wouldn’t want to argue that case but would always listen to someone who would.
The song I alluded to is not ‘commercial’ in any sense I recognise. It wasn’t a hit and surely wasn’t intended to be. It’s not something the Spice Girls might have covered.
There is the whole issue here though of whether or not threads like this are appropriate, even if you weren’t raising it here. Several others are grumping about this. Surely one of the great attractions of this site (not just the board) is the compelling blend of the on topic and the OT. A lot of stuff on the site (and the board) that is superficially about whistles is really just about having fun.
I think there is a clear distinction we can draw here. A thread that is OT or ‘just for fun’ is easily recognisable as such and wholly avoidable. It’s just on a file server, it’s not as though it takes up space on our computers. On the other hand, a thread that starts out asking a certain question and gets diverted or derailed might be justifiably irritating.
On 2002-10-21 10:48, Wombat wrote:
On 2002-10-21 09:55, madguy wrote:
On 2002-10-20 12:09, Wombat wrote:
Mike, he might mean that an ad like that has no place in America. Obviously, he’ll have to confirm if that’s what he means.You did interpret me right earlier.
There’s a Two-Tone record by Rhodda and Special AKA called ‘The Boiler’ in which she re-enacts a rape. It’s absolutely chilling and, I think, ought to be heard by everybody.
You were right saying I meant here in the USA. But I think commercials and “commercial” music are no place to arouse everyones’ political or moral consciousness.
~Larry
Larry, I imagine that people on this board could argue about the legitimacy of connecting politics, morals and music until the cows come home without agreeing. But those who think it inappropriate have the whole tradition of Irish rebel song and more or less explicit moral condemnation contained therein to explain away as misguided. I wouldn’t want to argue that case but would always listen to someone who would.
The song I alluded to is not ‘commercial’ in any sense I recognise. It wasn’t a hit and surely wasn’t intended to be. It’s not something the Spice Girls might have covered.
There is the whole issue here though of whether or not threads like this are appropriate, even if you weren’t raising it here. Several others are grumping about this. Surely one of the great attractions of this site (not just the board) is the compelling blend of the on topic and the OT. A lot of stuff on the site (and the board) that is superficially about whistles is really just about having fun.
I think there is a clear distinction we can draw here. A thread that is OT or ‘just for fun’ is easily recognisable as such and wholly avoidable. It’s just on a file server, it’s not as though it takes up space on our computers. On the other hand, a thread that starts out asking a certain question and gets diverted or derailed might be justifiably irritating.
Good grief! I was just making a comment!!! 
I didn’t mean to launch any debate! 
~Larry
Sorry Larry, you just caught me in an uncharacteristically overserious mood. I’d still like to project you back to certain points in history and evesdrop while you made the no politics point to certain very intense and earnest young Irishmen though.
Your thought about politics won’t go unnoticed by this former '60s anti-war protester.
~Larry
I know the ad you describe, Mike, and I agree that it is in poor taste.
Have you considered complaining to the Advertising Standards Authority?
I’m not sure that Nokia have seen all the implicaions of the ad, and would probably pull it if they felt it was raising negative vibes about their product.
With the worries in the UK this year regarding attacks and kidnapping of women and children, you might think that the advertiser would show more sensitivity to the subject.
On 2002-10-21 11:11, madguy wrote:
Your thought about politics won’t go unnoticed by this former '60s anti-war protester.>~Larry
Now what was that Country Joe and the Fish song everyone sang back then? Actually I don’t think that would have gone down very well with a group of young Irishmen who’d just had a visit from the Black and Tans.
And your point is?
~Larry
On 2002-10-21 11:16, Martin Milner wrote:
I know the ad you describe, Mike, and I agree that it is in poor taste.Have you considered complaining to the Advertising Standards Authority?
I’m not sure that Nokia have seen all the implicaions of the ad, and would probably pull it if they felt it was raising negative vibes about their product.
With the worries in the UK this year regarding attacks and kidnapping of women and children, you might think that the advertiser would show more sensitivity to the subject.
Actually Martin,I,m still undecided over the bad taste aspect which was my reason for offering it up for discussion.There is no doubt that voyeurism is the message in this ad but this can be said of 90% of advertisements.Moral implications aside,this is definately a `first´and I,m certain Nokia know this.Cell phones offer a sense of security to women and is definately a positive part of the message, and may well reflect an aspect that is unfortunately only too real in the world we live in.I,d be interested to hear what Women have to say about it. Mike
I haven’t seen the ad, but would probably be writing letters if I had seen it. It wouldn’t be the first time. I remember a Cadbury’s chocolate (for Easter yet!) commercial showing a young woman/girl sitting on a swing and eating a piece of chocolate in a very suggestive way - I found it in horrible taste (no pun intended) and wrote letters, as many, many people did because they pulled the ad shortly. Personally I’m deeply offended by selling-with-sex ads. An ad that implied something as horrific and violent as rape should never have even been considered, let alone filmed and then released.
Susan
(and to Larry - where did you do your protesting? Any chance you were in D.C.?)
I haven’t seen the Nokia ad but IMO it doesn’t sound like it was done in good taste.
Having said that, its easy to get all upset at advertisers but I don’t think there are many ads that are actually mean’t to be offensive. I think in many cases the ad company thinks the ad will be intepreted one way but actually gets interpreted another way by potential customers..
As Mike.R noted, it seems that Nokia may be pitching their phones as a “security device” for women. Maybe they thought they were being sensitive by using the “birthday message gag”?
For example, a few summers ago SaskPork (the Saskatchewan Pork Marketing Corp or something like that) produced a billboard ad that was designed to get people to buy more pork during the BBQ season: http://carcino.gen.nz/images/index.php/35a796d8/2207700a I’m sure it was just mean’t to be a clever play on words rather than offend. Nevertheless, SaskPork underestimated how conservative people in Saskatchewan tend to be and loads of offended (lost?) customers phoned or mailed SaskPork – it was quite controversial and got a lot of local news coverage (even made the Canadian national news as I recall). The ads came down as quickly as they went up.
Jeez, I’ve seen the Nokia ad in question lots of times, and have never found it to be the least offensive. Saying that the ad implies sexual harrassment or even gang rape sounds plain silly to me. Are you sure you aren’t reading too much into this?
I second that. But, of course, I am from the land who is the source of “The Swedish Sin”.