What do I think?

So I have given you enough examples of different kinds of controversial ads and campaigns. I have told you what it exactly is (shockvertising) and why it is being used. In this post I would like to talk about what I think about the use of shock advertising.


I think we can divide shock advertising in two categories:
- Shock advertising to get attention on a social issue.
- Shock advertising just to shock people and draw attention to your product.


In the first case I think it is good to shock people. Just like the SIRE fireworks campaigns you can see that it had a good effect on the numbers of victims caused by fireworks. Because they shocked people, people took things into action and prevented themselves from getting hurt by ‘playing’ with fireworks. With Benetton Group you can not directly see the effects of their campaigns, but even tough some of the ads are more than 20 years old, still people talk about them. Benetton made things as interracial marriages discussable.


In the second case I don’t think it is a good thing to use shock advertising. For example: Dolce & Gabanna. They claim that their ads are a form of art. But all I see is a picture of a woman being raped; at least they are all wearing pretty clothes? Is that what I should see in the ad? This ad has no utility. No social issue is getting attacked. It is beneficial for nobody except for Dolce & Gabanna who got so much attention with their campaign that they probably sold more of their products. Suit Supply does the exact same thing.


I think ads such as Suit Supply and Dolce & Gabanna are not only unnecessary; they probably damage young viewers who see the ads and don’t know that what they are seeing is not normal and wrong. But we will find out in the future that these ads did cause damage to the younger viewers.


So Shockvertising is a good thing, but only when it benefits more people than the company only.


As for now, thank you for reading my articles!


Cheers!

Shock Advertising

So I have given you some example of controversial campaign ads. As you see controversial ads do not always contains sex, as you would think. Everything that shocks or surprises you could be labelled as controversial. But what is it exactly then, and why is it used? In this post I would like to talk about what shockvertising actually is.


Wikipedia says: "Shock advertising or Shockvertising is a type of advertising generally regarded as one that “deliberately, rather than inadvertently, startles and offends its audience by violating norms for social values and personal ideals.”
Every day we get bombarded by a huge amount of ads and commercials. Even tough we see all these ads; it doesn’t mean we remember them all. The commercials we do remember had something in it that that was interesting enough (selective perception). Selective perception basically means you only take in what is meaningful to you. A commercial is interesting enough when it is selling something you need, or interested in. Or an ad has nothing to do with you, but you remember them because they are funny, such as the Centraal Beheer Achmea commercials. Commercials that shock people seem to get stuck in memories as well.


So shock advertising is used because it gets trough the selective perception of people. But who came up with using shock advertising? Benetton Group was the first company that was selling their products by shocking people. See my article about Benetton Group.
Many companies took Benetton Groups example and it became a popular tactic. Where Benetton is making social issues discussable, companies such as Calvin Klein just took the opportunity to shock people for no reason, well to get attention.


In the next post I will give you my opinion about controversial ads and shockvertising.

SIRE III

“Je bent een rund als je met vuurwerk stunt!” This phrase is one of the best-known phrases in Dutch marketing history. The campaign is against irresponsible use of fireworks.

The phrase has two meanings to it. You are a moron for playing with fireworks, and you are a cow for playing with fireworks. The second sentence has to do with, if you lose your fingers, your hand looks like a cows paw. 

I will give you a few examples of poster that SIRE posted:

This one speaks for itself. This person clearly was or is a cow.

Just put your finger in there, maybe after the first of January it won’t be possible any more. Ewwwww this picture is disgusting. But I think that the target group SIRE is aiming for could react to this.

(Something is off about this picture it looks fake. Or these woman just don’t have a bum)

This man was putting some fireworks in a plastic bag. He blew his own hand off.

So what SIRE did was basically just posting ads with shocking pictures. Most of the time the pictures showed people with missing fingers, hands, eyes or other body parts. The pictures are awful to look at, but this campaign was very successful.

Within the target group, 96% knows the ads and the phrase and give it a 7,9 as a grade. Within two years, the number of victims went from 2900 a year to 1900 a year.

Now a day SIRE does not makes campaigns against fireworks anymore. Another organisation took it over. Even tough the phrase does not make it to ads and commercials any more. Still people say the phrase ‘Je bent een rund als je met vuurwerk stunt’ when new years is getting close. 

SIRE II

The second SIRE campaign I would like to talk about is “Pleegouders zijn bijzonder nodig.” “Forster parents are really needed.”

In 2007 SIRE was celebrating their 40-year existence. For this special occasion SIRE called out to all the people of The Netherlands to send a social issue that needs attention to SIRE. The best one will be the next campaign. “Foster parent are really needed” won.

The commercials are showing children who are basically raising themselves. You see that they are in dialogue with themselves and saying what a parent normally would say. At the end of the commercials you see: “Je kan niet verwachten dat een kind zichzelf opvoedt.” “You can’t expect a child to raise itself.”

The third campaign I would like to talk about is the latest campaign of SIRE called “Ik ben er nog” “I’m still here.”

One out of four people steps out their dying friends life prematurely. That is a good reason for SIRE to make this subject discussable. The phrase “I’m still here” is saying even though I am dying, I am still living life.

SIRE made two commercials for this campaign. This one is showing a man (who is dying) making a video and sending it to a friend whom he had no contact with since he got sick. Then you see the message, ‘1 out of 4 people steps out their dying friends life prematurely. Not you, right?’

Next to the commercials SIRE has made a website www.ikbenernog.nl where people who are in this situation can share their experiences.

In the next article I would like to talk about another SIRE campaign called: “Je bent een rund als je met vuurwerk stunt.” “You are a moron if you play with fireworks.”

SIRE

In the Dutch controversial ads post I told you I couldn’t come up with any more Dutch controversial commercials. But then I was thinking about the SIRE campaigns.

SIRE (Stichting Ideële Reclame) is an independent organisation that tries to create awareness on socials issues such as child abuse or fireworks accidents. Most of the time the subjects are things that play a great role in society but are not really spoken about.

SIRE is non-profit. All the people who work with SIRE do this voluntary, the campaigns are made for free and even the commercials and ads are getting aired and placed for free.

Over the years SIRE had different campaigns. I will talk about the ones that made the greatest impression on me, starting with one involving children.

SIRE had made a campaign called: “Kinderen in de kou.” (2007) It basically means forgotten children. The campaign is showing different kinds of abuse such as, children who get beaten, ignored children and children who are being sexually abused. With this campaign SIRE is trying to get people to open their eyes and help children like this. 

In this commercial you see a girl being pulled to her room by something invisible, in the room the invisible person is starting to undress her. Then you hear: “Ik zie ik zie wat jij niet ziet.” “I can see I can see what you can’t see.” This phrase actually comes from a children’s game where you need to guess what the other person is seeing.

This just gives me goosebumbs. It really made me sick seeing this. Even though I don’t really want to see this. SIRE made a good decision by starting this campaign. People find this commercial so horrendous that they take action against child abuse.

In the next post I will discuss another campaign by SIRE.

Benetton Group

Benetton Group is an Italian fashion brand with stores based all over the world. Benetton Group has different brands, two of them being United Colors of Benetton and Sisley.

These two brands are known for their controversial ads. United Colors of Benetton uses social subjects such as racism. Some people find it offensive and ‘not done’. But I don’t believe that United Colors of Benetton is using these kinds of ads just to create shock, they really want you to think about what you are seeing. The ads are telling a story.

See and judge for yourself:

This ad is showing people of all colour and both sexes. United Colors of Benetton is trying to send the message ‘United Colors’ and ‘United People.’

Benetton tried to bring people together. Also a nun and a priest, but I don’t think many people got the message behind this ad. The next ad is not understood by a lot of people as well.

This is supposed to look like an angel and devil. Benetton is trying to portray a moral conflict, good and bad. But I think that many people see nothing more than the black child being the devil. “Is it because he’s black!?”

No matter what colour you are, we all look the same on the inside.

If you look closely, you can see the word AIDS.

I think this picture is saying: “AIDS doesn’t discriminate.”

Just a beautiful picture.

This one speaks for itself.

The advertisements for Sisley are controversial, not because they attack social issues But because they use sex and drugs.

 The models are snorting a piece of clothing that is supposed to look like drugs.

Later, Benetton group stated they had nothing to do with these ads.

But they did have something to do with these ads:

I think the Sisley ads use sex just to get you attention to sell their products. But United Colors of Benetton actually challenges you to think about what you are seeing. So I think that Benetton is doing it for a good cause where Sisley is just being uncreative in getting attention. 

Slut Supply

The man’s suit store Suit Supply had some pretty interesting advert campaigns as well. Suit Supply is a Dutch store that sells Italian suits to men only. In 2010 they started a marketing campaign called Shameless. Shameless shows pictures of a woman in a few ‘shameless’ pictures.

This campaign has been in the news a lot:

-       A member of the Christen Unie stated was going to avoid the shopping centre because she was not interested in seeing the posters. “Images like that should be banned from the streets.”

-       Suit Supply was forced to remove the images from their Facebook page because they were too offensive. Suit Supply reacted surprised because they think the images are artistic.

-       The Reclame Code Commissie received a lot of complains about the Shameless campaign. Many complainers said that the ads showed a lot of disrespect towards women. Even though the images are very pornographic, the Reclame Code Commissie declined all the complaints.

-       The NRC Next wrote a whole article about this campaign. The writer thinks that the images do not show disrespect towards women, “the woman is always portrayed as a dominant type.”


Some images are pretty graphic. I warned you!

I wasn’t even looking at her he is pretty gorgeous. She was probably thinking the same and took her boob out to get some viewers attention. 

Where the hell is his hand going!!??

I guess you probably already noticed the reflection.

At least she is wearing her knickers.

I found this funny picture. Slut Supply, it looks like that is what they are trying to sell.

 And again, where the hell is his hand going!!?? And her hand as well. Thank god he is driving an automatic car.

*No comment*

You do understand that I had to cover up her Vajayjay.

Dirty old man!

He is thinking: “Dude, I can’t believe it is finally happening.”

I guess they don’t mind she is doing both of them…

If you google Suit Supply, you will find a lot of more pictures like this. So I guess Suit Supply is really a mans brand and have only one thing on their mind. 

Shockvertising

Let’s start with posting a picture of the most shocking ad I have ever seen: the Tom Ford men’s perfume ad.

I do not even have to explain why I think this ad is really not done. It is pretty disgusting and was thinking twice if I should post this picture here. When I googled Tom Ford I found more ads for his products. Most ads are kind of the same; they all portray women as sex objects.

This ad is showing dirty man Mr Ford himself with actresses a naked Keira Knightly and Scarlet Johansson.

Dolce & Gabbana can be placed on the second place when it comes to controversial advertising. The following ad has been banned from Spain, because they think that the ads could impel to group rap. Dolce and Gabbana claimed that this ad is a form of art. “If this form of art can not be shown, the art of Caravaggio displayed in the Louvre should be burned as well.”

The ad is showing a group of men hovering over a woman who is being held down by another man. Clearly it should look like rape, I really don’t understand the arty part of it. But who am I?

Of course Dolce & Gabbana has made more ads like this:

PETA People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals the animal rights organisation is also well known for their shockvertisements. Most advertisements of PETA show famous people naked with a slogan like: “Fur? I’d rather go naked.”

Fun fact: When they asked Khloe Kasdashian to do this ad, she actually owned a few furs.

Fun fact: When I used to work in a hotel in London, I ‘met’ Jamelia there. She was staying with us for a few days.

The above PETA advertisements are still pretty innocent. The pictures are taken in a discrete way, especially the one of Jamelia. But PETA had made some very shocking ones as well.

Well the message PETA is trying to send out is pretty clear, but is it really necessary to portray these images to people who didn’t expect it and were not waiting for this. I actually do understand PETA in this case, I am not a vegetarian but I do think that everybody should know what exactly they are eating and where it came from. That medium rare steak on your plate used to be alive ones.  

See next post for more…

Dutch controversial commercials part two

Centraal Beheer Achmea “Even Apeldoorn bellen.” The KING when it comes to making commercials. They have won multiple Gouden Loeki awards for their creative and surprising commercials.

The commercial below never got aired on the Dutch television. Centraal Beheer Achmea did not want the commercial to air, because the two subjects religion and homosexuality are too sensitive to make jokes about. 

It is obvious that the commercial is showing Eve who is walking around in Eden. You see a snake in an apple tree and later on Eve meets Adam. Eve fancies Adam until he starts speaking. Clearly Adam is attracted to the other sex, well that could cause a lot of trouble… 

The gay community finds it offensive because Adam is being portrayed as a stereotype gay. And the Christian community does not like the fact that Adam is getting portrayed as a gay in this ad.  Even though this commercial did not get aired on TV, this commercial is very well known because it has gone viral on the Internet.

The last Dutch commercial that I remember that is using sex in their commercial is shopping centre Batavia Stad.

In this video you see naked women coming from out muddy places, they are marching trough grasslands. We see shots of legs, boobs and other naked stuff. Then you see a message saying: “volg je mode gevoel, dan kom je er vanzelf,” “Follow your fashion sense, you’ll get there eventually.” Bataviastad.

I don’t think the commercial has a lot to with Bataviastad and the products they are trying to sell. Again they are using nudity in a way to attract attention, an uncreative way of promoting if you ask me.

In the next few posts I will talk about the most shocking and controversial ads ever made. You will see that most of them have something to do with fashion or perfume. 

Dutch controversial commercials

Well everybody knows that in Holland many taboos have been broken first. But when it comes to commercials, I do think that Holland is kind of mild in comparison to other countries such as The States. In this blog post I will give you a few examples of commercials made in Holland or aired in Holland that have a shock effect or are using controversy.

The first one is a commercial that at first sight is kind of innocent. You see a woman eating cheese and I didn’t search too much behind the message. But I guess if you are male, you see a whole other message.

As you see, you can see an attractive woman eating Milner cheese and she is probably really enjoying it. But you also see a lot of womanly curves such as the waist and even the boobies! The girl is naked! It has nothing to do with the cheese really. This is just a commercial to draw the eyes. The same commercial was made with an attractive man:

I think ten years ago, a Belgian commercial was being aired in Holland and was creating a lot of fuzz. This commercial is showing a not so attractive man in a high office function stripping for a woman to seduce her in signing a work contract.

This commercial is obviously using sex to sell Adecco’s product/service. But they do it with humour. And it actually makes you think, because normally it would be the person who is applying for the job that could seduce the employer into contracting her. But for this commercial they changed the roles.

See next post for more controversial ads in Holland. 

London underground ads

 

In 2009 and 2010 I moved to London for 10 months. In London I travelled with the Londen Underground on a daily base. One of the first things I noticed was the amount of ads in the trains, in the stations, just everywhere. No matter where you turn, you saw an advert. In almost every station I saw an ad that really made a big impression on me.

These ads show young adolescents who are lying dead on the street, with a text saying: “Don’t let your friendship die on the road.” This campaign is called “look out for your mates”. The reason they started this campaign is, in 2007 545 young pedestrians were injured or killed in a road accident in London only. With these kind of ads they are trying to create awareness and warn young people to be more careful when being on the streets.

This one really sticked with me, because I just think it is an awful picture.  But I do agree that only with a controversial ad like this you could create awareness. So shocking people for a good cause is a positive thing in my opinion.

Another controversial London Underground ad I would like to talk about is an ad that says Va Jay Jay in a very big font (www.loveyourvagina.com). Va Jay Jay is another word for vagina. I thought the ad was so hilarious that I took a photo of it. There were more ads like this, for example one was saying Lady Garden with flowers in the shape of you know what.

Later on I found out it is an ad for a product called mooncup that could replace tampons(!).

One thing is for sure, these ads did what they were made for, get attention.

Welcome

Controversial advertisements

Now a days, you see them everywhere. Controversy leads to shock, shock leads to word of mouth and word of mouth leads to attention.  The more attention an advertisement or commercial gets, the more benefit the company gets out of it. There is no such thing as bad publicity. So the more you can shock the viewers, the more attention. But then you need to ask yourself a question: What is the limit? To which degree you can get somebody’s attention?

The most used subjects to shock people are definitely on the first place sex and second violence. Also you see social issues that are kind of taboo are being used.

When Mr. Sanders told me that I had to write a blog about a subject that has something to do with marketing, I first didn’t know what to write about. But then I read on the Internet that in The UK they did not show the Beyonce Heat commercial before 20.00 because of the explicit content. The commercial is showing the singer Beyonce who is moving in a seductive way to promote a bottle of perfume called Heat. This made me think. I wasn’t really shocked by the commercial because at first I didn’t really think it was that bad. Yes she is dancing in a seductive way, but it is not more seductive than any other MTV music video. But it made me think: is this really what we want our children to see? Children are very easy to influence, if they see these kind of commercials, it could probably lead to promiscuous behaviour on a later age. They don’t know any better. They are being showed that it is normal for women to act in that way.

In this blog I would like to talk about how the commercials and ads are getting more and more controversial. I will give you a few examples of controversial ads, why are they being used? What does this mean? And what is my opinion about this.

In my next posts I would talk about which ads made me cringe to my stomach or just laugh even though it is really wrong.