AMITY UNIVERSITY

Assignment
Controversial Advertisements
3/11/2014

Submitted To:Ms. Varsha Khattri Assistant Professor Amity Business School

Submitted By:Aarushi Pahuja MBA gen, 2012-14. E19 A0101912176 Amity Business School

Submitted By:Ayush Arora MBA gen, 2012-14. E40 A0101912201 Amity Business School

Assignment I Controversial Advertisement: Intended or Accidental?

Introduction

It is no rocket science that what is forbidden, irrational and obnoxious will sell better, quicker and more effectively than sane, cognitive and Acceptable. During the course of this research, the common iteration that we held was that controversy in advertising, is as common as sales in marketing. However, to expand our understanding of it we studied, what really controversies are, are they in dealt with the nature of the ad, or are they a figment of a very conservative minds assumption. If we spell the word ASSUME, we may derive ASS-U-ME, does that mean if we derive meaning based on assumptions we are making a fool out of the audience (U) and ourselves (ME)? Thus to gauge a lot of related results, various qualifiers or contributors to advertising were studied, with their base set on controversial advertisements aired around the world. Precisely, eight of these advertisements with an avalanche of examples are narrated in this paper.

1.1.a Definitions

To understand what advertising and controversy in advertising means to some of the worlds most renowned names, we quote what they opined.

Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket1 - George Orwell

Meaning? Orwell conveys, that in modern capitalistic culture, advertising is the stick rattling the swill bucket of endless consumer goods, alerting us pigs, constantly, to the endless festive parade of rubbish we're encouraged to buy even if it means going into debt. It's definitely not a flattering observation Orwell makes, but its chief virtue is that it's true.

Controversial advertising is the modern substitute for argument; its function is to make the worse appear the better.2 - George Santayana

Advertising is only evil when it advertises evil things3 - David Ogilvy

1.1.b Controversial advertising to an advertising student

To understand what a topic as vivid and as titillating as controversial advertising means to an almost MBA, we simply split the two, as shown in exhibit 1.

Exhibit 1 defining controversial advertising; Source: Primary

In other words, It is a type of advertising generally regarded as one that deliberately, rather than in advertently, startles and offends its audience by violating norms for social values and personal ideals.

2.1 Contributors to Controversy in an advertisement

After finding, studying and interpreting several controversial advertisements in the world, we established that directly or indirectly all the advertisement which became controversial were coining with the following contributors. Thus we invented and Acronym for contributors to controversial advertisements. MOVRCARG (read as Mover-Carg)

Mockery

Creativity

Obscene
Violence Race

Attributes
Religion
Geographic

Case I Mockery

Advert I - McDonald's UN-happy Rendezvous

The offending ad itself (above) showed a woman with her face in her hands alongside the words: Youre Not Alone: Millions of people love the Big Mac. This struck a little too close to a serious issue for some, though it made a bit more sense in the context of the entire train car, which was filled with spoofs of other common subway ad genres. Many photos were posted on social networking websites such as Facebook and twitter. The controversial ad aside, the campaign as a whole is actually kind of amusing, if somewhat out of line with the general aesthetic of the McDonalds brand.

Exhibit 2 Mc Donald's Ad trivilizing mental illness ; Source : e-Boston Magazine

What stirred the controversy? Trivializing mental illness

Reaction that ascended? Were trying to say when you need help, its not a laughing matter. We dont want people to feel stigmatized or made fun of. -Julie Totten, executive director of Waltham based Families for Depression Awareness

How was it tackled ? Self-Remedy: Mc Donalds profusely apologized, regretted and withdrew the ad.

The company says the ads were purchased by an outside agency on the companys behalf without prior approval. McDonalds regional spokesperson Nicole DiNoia wrote in a statement: A local print ad displayed on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) was recently brought to our attention. We can confirm this ad was not approved by McDonalds. And, as soon as we learned about it, we asked that it be taken down immediately. We have an approval process in place, with our marketing and advertising agencies, to ensure that all advertising content is consistent with our brand values. Regrettably, in this incident, that process was not followed. We sincerely apologize for this error.

Case I Obscenity

Advert II - From Toing to Turmoil

The commercial, created by the Pushpinder Singh-owned Saints & Warriors, first hit television screens in the first week of April, and has raised quite a few eyebrows since then. So much so that the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) received a complaint last week, which terms the ad indecent and obscene. If the complaint is upheld, then the ad violates Chapter 2 of the ASCI code. To cite the code, it is important to ensure that advertisements are not offensive to generally accepted standards of public decency. Advertisements should contain nothing indecent, vulgar or repulsive which is likely, in the light of generally prevailing standards of decency and propriety, to cause grave or widespread offence. The ASCI has sent a letter to the advertiser about the complaint, after which 15 days will be given to the party to revert to us with their explanations, says the ASCI secretariat. Following that, the

matter will be put before the ASCI committee, which will then come to a consensus on what action should be taken. The recommendation will then be sent to the concerned parties.

Exhibit 3 Story board of Amul Macho; Source : Derived from public video

Mr. Pushpinder Singh, founder, Saints & Warriors, quoted, The temptation to be mediocre and obvious is always there in underwear advertising. Its very easy to show skimpily clad women or have shots of men wearing innerwear. But we chose to be clutter breaking. What Saints & Warriors attempted to do, he says, is to make the underwear a surrogate for male sexuality.

What stirred the controversy? It was regarded as Crass, atrocious and shortcut effort of getting registered in the minds.

Reaction it received? 15 crores for aggressive brand marketing, and guess who won the Amul Macho account? Well, it was Saints & Warriors and there seems to be nothing saintly about their ads. They came "armed with ideas to make the communication for the brand clutterbreaking." Well, they didnt break any clutter, and instead, added to it in their big toing way. -M.B. Farookh, Top blogger, http://www.mouthshut.com/

How was it tackled? Though this daring ad slipped through the sleepy eyes of ASCI (The Advertising Standards Council of India), the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting ultimately banned it.

Case I Violence

Advert III - The Killer Heels

An advert promoting national newspapers has been banned by watchdogs after 81 people complained that it was offensive, sexist and condoned violence. The Advertising Standards Authority today ruled that the advert - which showed an enormous metal stiletto heel skewering a businessman through his stomach as a pool of blood collected on the ground - had caused widespread and serious offence. Newspapers including the Times, Independent, Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Observer, Daily Express and the Daily Mail now find themselves in the embarrassing position of having funded and printed an advertisement the watchdog has ruled entirely unacceptable. The text in the advert reads, "Killer heels, by NMA" followed by a website address at the bottom. It was the brainchild of the Newspaper Marketing Agency, a group set up by national newspapers to make them more attractive to advertisers. The ASA ruled that the advert trivialised violence even though it used a deliberately unrealistic image.

The Times, Guardian, Observer, Daily Express and the Daily Telegraph defended the advert, telling the ASA it was not sexist and did not trivialise violence against men. But the Daily Mail said in hindsight the image was unsuitable for publication and would not run it again.

Exhibit 4 NMA's Print Ad; Source: http://www.theguardian.com/

What stirred the controversy? It was deemed as offensive, sexist, and condoning violence.

Reaction It received? It registered 81 complaints within a week of being published, in 2005.

How was it tackled? The Advertising Standards Authority today ruled that the advert. It was an advertisement the watchdog has ruled entirely unacceptable.

Case I Racism

Advert IV Sony PSP White

Sony's pulled the plug on their "PSP White is coming" ad campaign in the Netherlands, which depicted, well, most of the audience could guess. Followers wont call it an admission of guilt or anything (and neither did Sony), but they did apologize to those offended by the campaign, also stating, The official statement said, "We recognize that the subject matter of one specific image may have caused concern in some countries not directly affected by the advertising. As a result, we have now withdrawn the campaign." We're quite well aware of the cultural context in which advertising must be taken, but it's apparent the world holds a company like Sony to a higher standard, and Sony can apparently recognize this as well.

Exhibit 5 Sony PSP White Ad; Source: http://www.engadget.com

What stirred the controversy? It was Deemed as Outright Racist, Discriminating and prejudiced. It featured an aggressive, strong-looking white woman clawing, clutching and otherwise dominating a subordinate black woman. Reaction it received? The billboard pictured here is one of supposedly somewhere near 100 evocative images created for the campaign with the same theme, which found viewers of the ads and game lovers alike, crying foul at Sony's latest foible cum PR fiasco. How was it tackled? Self-Remedy: It was withdrawn after the mayhem it caused.

AYUSHs PART
Case: Religion

Advert V UNHATE ads

Benetton was forced to pull into a humiliating climb-down today as the clothing company was forced to pull one of its images from its new 'Unhate' campaign. The Italian firm withdrew the photograph featuring Pope Benedict XVI kissing a senior Egyptian imam on the lips after the Vatican denounced it as an unacceptable provocation. Benetton had claimed its 'Unhate' campaign, which was launched today, was aimed at fostering tolerance and 'global love' but would have known how much trouble they were likely to stir up. Benetton said the photographs of political and religious leaders kissing were 'symbolic images of reconciliation - with a touch of ironic hope and constructive provocation - to stimulate reflection on how politics, faith and ideas, when they are divergent and mutually opposed, must still lead to dialogue and mediation.' In a statement, the Treviso-based manufacturer said: 'We are sorry that the use of an image of the pontiff and the imam should have offended the sensibilities of the faithful in this way. We have decided with immediate effect to withdraw this image from every publication.

Exhibit 6 UCB Unhate ads Source http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

What stirred the controversy? The digitally photo shopped images of different world leaders in various liplock postures, especially of the Pope, didn't go down well with the Vatican, which finds the image Reaction? Vatican threatened legal action to protect the pope's image. How was it tackled? SELF REMEDY: The image of Benedict kissing Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed El-Tayeb, imam of the renowned al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, was pulled almost immediately after the Vatican protested

Case: Creativity

Advert VI Hyundai ix35

Believe it or not, the European division of Hyundai came up with the brilliant idea to feature a suicide attempt to highlight their vehicles new feature. At least with Fords controversial ads featuring the Kardashian sisters tied up was a bit tongue-in-cheek. The suicide clip is just in bad taste. Naturally given the uproar, Hyundai issued an apology and removed the ad from YouTube. Hyundai Motor deeply and sincerely apologizes for the offensive viral ad, Hyundai says in a statement. The ad was created by an affiliate advertising agency, Innocean Europe, without Hyundais request or approval Hyundai apologizes to those who have been personally impacted by tragedy. Titled Pipe Job, the one-minute commercial shows a man sitting in a car in a closed garage trying to kill himself with toxic exhaust fumes. In the end, his suicide attempt is thwarted due to Hyundais 100 percent water emissions. Surprisingly, a 2002 ad by Citroen and a 2009 ad by Audi were also based on similar concepts. Check out the yanked commercial below.

Source http://www.homorazzi.com/ Exhibit 7 Hyundai ads

What stirred the controversy? The video advert depicts a man trying to kill himself through asphyxiation from his ix35's tailpipe exhaust. He fails because the car is powered by a hydrogen fuel cell and so emits only water.

Reaction? An advertising copywriter, Holly Brockwell, who lost her father to suicide, wrote an open letter to Hyundai asking them to think about the thousands of suicide victims and the families they left behind How was it tackled? Hyundai quickly apologized and tried to distance itself from the "creative" work

Case: Geographic Advert VII - IKEA

Ikea is being criticized for deleting images of women from the Saudi version of its furniture catalogue, a move the company says it regrets. Comparing the Swedish and Saudi versions of the Ikea catalogue, Sweden's free newspaper Metro on Monday showed that women had been airbrushed out of otherwise identical pictures showcasing the company's home furnishings. The report raised questions in Sweden about Ikea's commitment to gender equality, and the company released a statement expressing "regret" over the issue. "We should have reacted and realized that excluding women from the Saudi Arabian version of the catalogue is in conflict with the IKEA Group values," the company said. Women appear only infrequently in Saudi-run advertising, mostly on Saudi-owned TV channels that show women in long dresses, scarves covering their hair and long sleeves. In imported magazines, censors black out many parts of a woman's body including arms, legs and chest

Exhibit 8 IKEA ad Source 1 http://www.cbc.ca/news/world

What stirred the controversy? Swedish publication Metro posted a comparison of the Saudi Arabian mailer and the Swedish version, showing that women present in the latter were missing from the former

Reaction? The Swedish government wasted no time is voicing. They said You can't remove or airbrush women out of reality. If Saudi Arabia does not allow women to be seen or heard, or to work, they are letting half their intellectual capital goes to waste," Swedish Trade Minister

How was it tackled? The company reviewed different versions of the IKEA Catalogue worldwide.

Case: Attributes

Advert VIII -: PETA Save the Whales Billboard A PETA billboard in Jacksonville, FL, calls larger women whales and urges them to lose the blubber by going vegetarian. PETAs press release on the billboard says going vegetarian can be an effective way to shed those extra pounds that keep [women] from looking good in a bikini. Oh, God, now even billboards are judging us? Insults and fat-shaming arent tried-and-true ways to encourage tofu instead of burgers. But something tells us that wasnt the point: Bigger women were the ones chosen to be dehumanized so this cruel, sexist billboard could get some chuckles

Source http://www.peta.org/blog/lose-blubber-go-vegetarian/ Exhibit 9 Save the whales

What stirred the controversy? It's a bikini-clad, overweight beachgoer painted on a billboard sign caused widespread offense to women

Reaction? Feminists took objection to the "fat-shaming" content of the billboard and demanded an apology. Critics called the ad sexist because it portrayed women as not being valuable unless they were skinny and also notes that it was mean-spirited toward overweight people in general

How was it tackled ? PETA took down the ad, but replaced it with another with just the words, "GONE: Just like all the pounds lost by people who go vegetarian

Other Controversial ads:

Advert: Ford A series of car ads, including one showing women bound and gagged in the trunk of a Ford driven by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, has prompted Internet outrage in India and called forth an apology from Ford India.

The ads came just days after India approved a tougher new law to punish sex crimes, following the fatal gang rape of a student in December. That attack sparked unprecedented protests over the treatment of women in the country.

Source 2 http://www.hindustantimes.com/ Exhibit 10Ford

The ads, uploaded on an industry website, were created by individuals within JWT India, a unit of the world's biggest advertising group WPP. They did not go through the normal review and oversight process, Ford India said. "We deeply regret this incident and agree with our agency partners that it should have never happened," Ford said. "These posters are against the standards of professionalism and decency within Ford and our agency partners, and weren't part of any projects that Ford and WPP are working on, or for any commissioned commercial use."

Advert : Naukri.com

Source 3 http://news.outlookindia.com/ Exhibit 11 Naukri.com

Job portal Naukri.Com rejected the demand for withdrawal of its advertisement playing on the name "Hari" saying that it was in no way responsible or liable for the fact that a boy by the same name was getting teased by his friends.

The portal said that the Chandigarh boy Hari Bhanot has objected to the use of the first name "Hari" in the 'Hari Sadu' advertisement of Naukri.Com and has sent a legal notice to the website claiming harassment by his schoolmates owing to the similarity in name.

He has claimed Rs one crore as damages and also asked Naukri.Com to remove the advertisement that is currently running on television. In the advertisement, Hari is described as "H for Hitler, A for Arrogant, R for Rascal and I for Idiot." The portal said the advertisement was a work of fiction, the characters and situations were fictional and did not in any way represent a situation close to an 11-year-old.

"Hari Sadu is a work of imagination and has been created to be a caricature representative of a pesky and arrogant boss - and in its overemphasising the not so refined qualities of the boss lies the humour. Clearly the scene played out in the advertisement has borrowed from the typical Hindi film formula of villain, hero and supporting actor," the portal said. The website said making advertisements requires the use of a "creative license" pointing out that the character in question is not "Hari" but "Hari Sadu". Surnames exist to distinguish individuals bearing common first names.

Pre clearance for Advertisement in India

In India pre clearance from the Censor Board of India is required for the feature films. For the commercial advertisement films and radio advertisements the system of pre clearance is still not in force.

ASCI role for controversial Ads

Complaints are upheld in the following instances a. When an advertisement is considered to be offensive to the generally accepted standards of public decency.

b. If an advertisement is indecent, vulgar, repulsive which is likely, in the light of generally prevailing standards of decency and propriety, to cause grave or widespread offence? (As per clause II of ASCIs code for self regulation in advertising. Once a complaint is upheld advertisers in most cases either withdraw or modify the advertisement. Even in the instances when complaints were not upheld, some advertisers have either modified, withdrawn or discontinued advertisements, keeping in mind the feedback from the complaints. In some instances where complaints were not upheld, ASCI advised the advertisers to air the TV commercials when the children are not likely to view them, i.e., from 11 pm to 6 am.

Interview Instrumentation and Excerpts

In order to understand what stirs a controversy and controvers as a strategy we roped in the managing director of Saints and Warriors Pvt Ltd, the company behind the creative genius of AMul Macho Ad. The dignitary was kind enough to address all out questions and a screen shot of his answers is enclosed in this section. Sirs profile is enlisted as follows:-

Mr. Pankaj Acharya

Founder & CEO
Mumbai Area, India Marketing and Advertising Non-executive Director (S & W Pvt Ltd)

I.
Dear

Script
Sir,

We hope the message finds you well. We came across your learned profile while researching for an advertising project as a part of final semester of my MBA. By the way of introduction, I will be graduating with a Marketing and HR degree this summer and currently working on an advertising research project, titled, Controversial Advertisements. Since controversy is only a function of perception, we could really solicit your viewpoint and your opinions on what qualifies to become a controversial advertisement? Or what really stirs a controversy? For it is known, what may be obnoxious for someone, may be agreeable for other. We observed that you have served at a very reputed position at Saints and Warriors Pvt Ltd, and the company has been delivering creative geniuses for its ads for a long time, although it has had its own share of controversy, with the Amul Macho advertisement. If you could opine on, if advertisements are sometimes intended towards controversy? For the result is not always bad, a controversial ad registers in the mind must earlier than others. We would be highly obliged to learn from you. I assure you this information is only for academic purposes, and your opinions will be limited to the classroom presentation. Looking forward to this association. With warmth and regards, Aarushi Pahuja and Ayush Arora MBA(Marketing and HR) Amity Business School aarushi.pahuja@gmail.com

II.

Retrieved Opinion

We also Conducted a discussion on Linkedin on its most contributed advertising professional group. The link is specified here:http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Advertising-Professional22246?mostPopular=&gid=22246&trk=eml-b2_anet_digest-null-0-null&ut=0z5iBibrwV8Cc1

Following are the excerpts from the discussion which graduated as the most popular post of the week.

All of the above methods of deriving professionals opinions helped us in drawing our conclusion.

Conclusion Being controversial is not a virtue of choice. It merely happens. Although, Some Ads such as United colors of Benetton's prints or Sony "white" PSP ads, are so obvious to lead to non-acceptance by major groups that it highlights that these companies are "almost" oblivious to controversies. How could they not foresee "consequences" More so, Even if these ads were withdrawn later as self-remedy or perhaps banned, they had done their job well. SO BACK TO SQUARE ONE, PUBLICITY : GOOD OR BAD, ALWAYS WELCOMED!

Sources

1) http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/g/georgeorwe102986.html 2) http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/144995-advertising-is-the-modern-substitute-forargument-its-function-is 3) http://www.deceptology.com/2010/06/advertising-is-only-evil-when-it.html 4) http://www.theguardian.com/ 5) http://www.engadget.com 6) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2062423/Benetton-Unhate-advert-Pope-kissingimam-withdrawn-Vatican-calls-disrespectful.html#ixzz2xl0WEuq2 7) http://www.homorazzi.com/article/hyundai-suicide-commercial-controversial-adcampaign-ix35 8) http://www.hindustantimes.com/Images/Popup/2013/3/27_03_biz5.jpg 9) http://news.outlookindia.com/