Friday, August 1, 2008

Verizon Ad Considered Offensive - Pulled Off Air

A recent trend continues. Small but well-meaning (I hope) groups are insisting marketers pull TV spots off the air because they're deemed offensive.

Here's the latest. First, watch it on YouTube.

Next, read the story on this morning's AdAge online.

1) Did you find the spot amusing/funny/striking/different?

2) Did you find the spot offensive on first viewing?

3) Did you judge the spot offensive after reading PETA's complaint?

Your comment encouraged.

The Romans had a saying, "De gustibus non disputandum est." Pardon the spelling, my Latin is more than a little rusty. "It's better not to dispute in matters of taste."

More tomorrow...

2 comments:

monella said...

[1] i found the spot rather odd at first, since i haven't seen any of the verizon commercials for this sequence. however; after giving it some though, i do appreciate the effort to break through the clutter. the tag line "dare you to touch one" is great!

[2] offensive? not nearly. i thought what could have possibly been offensive before reading the AdAge article and was no where near the verdict.

[3] I almost start to chuckle thinking of PETA's strong efforts to pull the ad from the air. What's next, censoring Shark Week??

DoesntMatter said...

I had actually seen the ad before it got pulled. I actually thought it was pretty good (I mean talk about an uphill battle with the iPhone).
And no, I don't think it's offensive. Actually the request to pull it is more offensive