The question of ethics in advertising is hard to answer because the perception of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable involves values that differ from one region in the world to another. I have seen a number of campaigns in the Middle East that were executed by reputable multinational agencies that utilized messages and references that may attract human rights complaints if they were used in Europe or North America.

The concept behind the mobile-popcorn ad achieves what the client asked for: cheap yet enormous exposure. The campaign travels easily across geography because the concept is not country-specific. Campaigns involving humor rely on assumptions of what the target demographic finds humorous, which in turn involves factors of race, language, and pop-culture that may not be applicable in an international campaign.

Of course, the creator could have used a simple concept with standardized humor that can be understood by anyone across the world. But then the campaign would have been quite bland and unoriginal, as Mr. Simon has indicated that this practice has been in existence for the past 20 years.

Fear, on the other hand, is universal. Cell phones are universal. Pop corn is universal. Combine all three and the campaign's demographical reach extends from millions into billions of internet users across the world. In that sense, the creativity of Mr. Chast has certainly served his client well. The campaign was unique and successful in attracting enough attention to rocket the brand/product into viral-space. This measurement of success, however, assumes that the client's product can benefit from international exposure (availability to international buyers).

In the end, there is certainly something to be said about watching out for unexpected associations between the brand/product and any negative backlash from a particular campaign. In the case of the mobile popcorn campaign, some can argue that the associated fear was directed at cell phone use in general and not towards the particular advertised product. While inferences can certainly be drawn, the real impact of concern to the client is whether the backlash will present any real danger to sales. Since cell phones are considered more of a commodity these days than an object of leisure, there is no real danger of the technology being abandoned or used less frequently in any way that will impact sales in a measurable way.

As they say, there is no such thing as 'bad' publicity.