Issue 9: Is everything offensive these days?

I was thinking I would do a more light hearted response article to someone else's blog but Abby's blog entry regarding Sony's "racially charged" PSP ads (shown below) really caught my interest.


I had heard about the ads earlier from several other blog and news sites that I visit. The furor over the ads is, obviously, that it depicts a white model aggressively holding a black model. This ad is intended to announce the coming white iteration of the Sony PSP whereas previously it was only available in black.

Now I understand where some people may be offended by the ad. There are a few reasons actually. First, of course is the racial angle: a white model is the aggressor against the black model. Second, the sexist angle: they are "sexy" female models advertising a piece of consumer electronics, in a fairly unobvious way (why do they need to be scantily clad?). The ad was placed in Europe, as Abby points out, but in these days of the internet news and information spreads, quite literally, at the speed of light.

I am a fairly tolerant person and my personal view is that maybe we have forgotten what offensive actually is. If putting a black and white person together in an ad is instantly "racial" then we haven't really come very far in the last few decades. The ad to me does not allude to slavery or the civil rights movement but I can see how some people would see that as their first impression.

I do understand the need for sensitivity in ads but at what point to do we stop being edgy and just end up being boring? Edginess and humor is almost always targeted at someone and thus can always be construed as offensive. Should we stop making funny ads just because they offend people? I am kind of playing devil's advocate here because I believe we should work to destroy racial and cultural sterotypes. There are actually several websites that track offensive ads in the media, somthing that I found kind of interesting. Do you think the following ads are offensive?

Is this ad offensive to the guy or the girl? Is the guy so superficial that he would rather make love to his car or are ladies offended because they can be replaces with automobiles?





















Is this ad too gruesome or does it relay it's message effectively? Is it offensive to heart disease victims? I think this is a great ad that fits in perfectly with the brand message that Benetton tries to portray.











This is the logo for French Connection United Kingdom (FCUK) a clothing line based out of the UK. Obviously the abbreviation is very close to another 4 letter word with an entirely different meaning. Is it wrong for the company to build it's whole brand around this name?

The answers are not easy and I don't claim to have them. As Abby points out, we must be sensitive towards our target audience and also to others who may see the ad. With ncreasingly targeted advetising is it worth it to entertain one target segment while offending others outside your target market? These are the questions that marketers face in this age of increasing vigilance over ad's subject matter and the internet, where news both good and bad can spread like wildfire.