advertising

Got an electric car? "May eagles gouge your eyes out!"

Sophie — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:31:20 +0200

This advert for a Nissan-Renault car, aired in Israel, has incensed the Saudi population.

According to the Jerusalem Post, a Saudi official speaking on a United Arab Emirates channel said that Nissan had made "a grave error in playing on [racist] sentiments", to the extent that the Franco-Japanese company deserves punishing.

The ad is promoting Tiida, a low mileage car that Nissan-Renault hope to sell in Israel - a country that is trying to reduce its energy dependence. The car manufacturer is teaming with an Israeli entrepreneur on Project Better Place in an electric vehicle project (thanks to Andrew for the tip).

Anti-gay ad?

Sophie — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:54:20 +0200

UPDATE (30 July 08 - 4.30pm): Mars has announced the advert has been withdrawn from British television. Until now it has only been shown on UK TV and not broadcast in the US except for at the Superbowl. The UK's Advertising Standards Authority only received two complaints about it, but the ad was pulled anyway because of controversy in the US.

One of our Observers in Washington, blogger John Avarosis has alerted us to a seemingly homophobic advert from chocolate bar brand Snickers. This is the second time in 18 months that Snickers, who was forced to withdraw a gay-offensive ad last February, has faced criticism for homophobic advertising.

Released 10 July 08.

Snickers was originally in trouble for an advert that saw two mechanics accidentally kissing and being so revolted that they resorted to violent acts including drinking motor oil and attacking each other with a wrench. The campaign also featured famous baseball players grimacing at the kiss. With the ad aired at the Superbowl at the beginning of last year, Snickers set up a website where viewers could ‘pick the best ending'. This, along with the television campaign, was quickly withdrawn after gay and lesbian rights groups complained to the product's owners, Mars Masterfoods.

The advert was removed two days after being shown at the Superbowl, 3 February 08.

Faux-amateur videos - the new marketing weapon

Sophie — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:55:14 +0200

They all follow the same format - an anonymous video, supposedly amateur, of an incredible act or experience appears online. Once a buzz has been created, the so-thought home-made footage turns out to be an advert. A successful marketing strategy indeed, but does it meet ethical standards?

The faux-amateur video has become an essential technique for advertisers. The bigger it is, the more web users fall for it. The latest to date is a clip showing a group of young people cooking popcorn with the radiation from a couple of ringing mobile phones. The video received over 10 million hits in ten days on YouTube, but the majority of its audience thought it was real.

Rumours soon followed that mobile phones were highly dangerous. When news came out that the scene had been faked, it was too late to completely eradicate the initial panic. The affair clearly demonstrates the dangers of viral publicity. Not only is it easy it is to start false rumours, but also to weaken the public trust in the internet, which is seen more than ever as a media fuelled by gossip.

The campaign that went too far?

Sophie — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:28:57 +0200

A campaign about the Beijing Olympics produced for Amnesty International France was considered so aggressive by its creators that they decided to call off its release.

Advertising agency TBWA\Paris did however seek permission from their client to present the project at the Cannes Lions advertising festival. And it even received a prize. Since then the images, which show Chinese prisoners tortured with the help of Olympics sports equipment, have been circulated on blogs and forums in China, causing outrage in the country.

Richard Gere infuriates Chinese with pro-Tibet Fiat ad

Sophie — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:48:54 +0200

Despite complaints from the Chinese authorities, Italian car manufacturer Fiat has refused to pull an advert which shows Buddhist actor Richard Gere gleefully playing with traditional Tibetan children.

Fiat did issue an apology to China on Monday but said that the commercial for the new Lancia Delta would remain on-air in Italy and even spread to other European countries. They denied that Richard Gere had been chosen for his free-Tibet stance and ties with the Dalai Lama, and said they did not mean to "interfere with the internal political system of any country". However the advert, which has caused outrage on YouTube where Chinese web users can watch it, is just the latest in a string of offences that have upset Chinese people over Tibet. A month ago Sharon Stone was dropped from a Christian Dior campaign after saying that the earthquake in China was bad karma for its treatment of Tibet.

Is it racist?

Sophie — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:11:51 +0200

A Japanese advert that portrays Barack Obama as a monkey has outraged Web users. But is it really racist? Maybe not in Japan...

UPDATE (30 June 2008 3pm): Chairman of the telecoms company, Sachio Semmoto, has informed Reuters that E-Mobile has now withdrawn the advertisement on TV, although he denied accusations of racism; saying that the macaque had already been used in several other of their campaigns. He said that he recognised sensitivities with the African-American/ Japanese relationship. He also said that Obama's candidacy is an opportunity for the US and that such a candidate could be beneficial for Japan.

NEW UPDATE (9 July 2008 10.30am): One of our readers has informed us that although the television adverts have been pulled, the campaign is still being circulated in print form. We have verified this with news sources.

Chevrolet gets its own dancing robot car

Julien — Mon, 19 May 2008 11:09:48 +0200

TV audiences might never get to see Chevrolet's parody of the Citroen C4 dancing robot, as its bopping bad behaviour won't appear on the box. The viral video is only available online - where taking the piss out of your competitor is above-board and in this case, really rather funny.

The parody of Citroen's successful dancing car robot ad (taken from the Transformers cartoon-turned-movie concept), was created by advertising agency Czar.

Via the blog Revue de web.

Google shares fall: is the fairy tale over?

Julien — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:27:06 +0200

Trend in Google's share price from 2 April 08

Google's stock price has fallen 38% from its peak last year. And, for the first time ever, the number of clicks on the California-based company's cash cow, Google Ads, have stopped climbing in the US. For some financial analysts, alarm bells are ringing.