Offensive Advertising

An
Legal Environment
Project
By
Mansi Bengali
103
TYBMM

Introduction
Offensive advertising 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. It is the employment in advertising of "graphic
imagery and blunt slogans to highlight" a public policy issue,
goods, or services. This kind of advertising is designed principally
to break through the advertising clutter to capture attention
and create buzz, and also to attract an audience to a certain
brand or bring awareness to a certain public service issue, health
issue, or cause. This form of advertising is often controversial,
disturbing, explicit and crass, and may entail bold and
provocative political messages that challenge the publics
conventional understanding of the social order.
This form of advertising may not only offend but can also frighten
as well, using scare tactics and elements of fear to sell a product
or deliver a public service message, making a "high impact." In
the advertising business, this combination of frightening, gory
and/or offensive advertising material is known as "shockvertising"
and is often considered to have been pioneered by Benetton, the
Italian clothing retailers which created the line United Colors of
Benetton, and its advertisements in the late 1980s. It may also
depend on the country where the advertising is portrayed.
E.g. in India nudity in advertising will be considered to be
offensive while in USA, Germany it will be fine. The reason is
because India is a high context culture country while USA,
Germany are low context culture countries Also there are three
types via which advertising can be considered to be offensive that
is matter, manner and media.

The Offensive Factor

Offensive advertisements can be shocking and offensive for a
variety of reasons, and violation of social, religious, and political
norms can occur in many different ways. They can include a
disregard for tradition, law or practice (e.g., lewd or tasteless
sexual references or obscenity), defiance of the social or moral
code (e.g., vulgarity, brutality, nudity, feces, or profanity) or the
display of images or words that are horrifying, terrifying, or
repulsive (e.g., gruesome or revolting scenes, or violence).
Some advertisements may be considered shocking, controversial
or offensive not because of the way that the advertisements
communicate their messages but because the products
themselves are "unmentionables" not to be openly presented or
discussed in the public sphere. Examples of these
unmentionables may include cigarettes, feminine hygiene
products, or contraceptives.
However, there are several products, services or messages that
could be deemed shocking or offensive to the public. For example,
advertisements for weight loss programs, sex/gender related
products, clinics that provide AIDS and STD testing, funeral
services, groups that advocate for less gun control, casinos which
naturally support and promote gambling could all be considered
controversial and offensive advertising because of the products
or messages that the advertisements are selling. Offensive
advertising content may also entail improper or indecent
language, like French Connection's fcuk campaign.

The Effects of Offensive Advertising

Advertisers, psychiatrists, and social scientists have long debated

the effectiveness of offensive advertising. Some scientists argue
that an offensive ad of course evokes stronger feelings among
the consumers. One finding suggests offensive content in an
advertisement significantly increases attention, benefits memory,
and positively influences behaviour. The same study also shows
that consumers are more likely to remember offensive advertising
content over advertising content that is not offensive. Offensive
advertising could also refer to the usage of emotional appeals
such as humour, sex or fear. Humour has for a long time been the
most frequently used communication tool within advertising, and
according to branch active people it is considered to be the most
effective. The effects of offensive advertising could also be
explained by the theory of selective perception. Selective
perception is the process by which individual selects, organizes
and evaluates stimuli from the external environment to provide
meaningful experiences for him- or her. This means that people
focus in certain features of their environment to the exclusion of
others. The consumer unconsciously chooses which information to
notice and this kind of selection is dependent of different
perceptual filters which are based on the consumers earlier
experiences. One example of this kind of filter is perceptual
defense. Perceptual defense is the tendency for people to protect
themselves against ideas, objects or situations that are
threatening. This means that if a consumer finds a certain kind of
advertising content threatening or disturbing, this message will
be filtered out. An example of this a heavy smoker who could be
filtering out a picture of cancer sick lung since the content could
be perceived as disturbing and uncomfortable. It should also be
considered that long term branding issues use offensive
advertising as communication method. Using shocking pictures
could affect the way consumers perceive your brand and quality
of your product. The ethics is always important to have in mind,
and using fear or other strong messages might not always be the
best and most effective method to use.

A Few Examples
1. If you've never heard of St Mathew in the City, you better sit
down for this one. They are, without a doubt, the most
progressive religious community on the planet. This
Anglican church in New Zealand is known for their hilarious

religious advertising, like this one for their Christmas mass.

That's right - they're religious AND they have a sense of
humour...

2. New Zealand skateboarding company Eshe Skateboards ran

a series of outdoor ads as part of their "Religion in Garbage"
series. The stunt worked, the story was carried around the
world and several Indians issued complaints to the company
and were promptly told to go and fly the figurative kite...

3. Se
x

sells, this has

been known since the dawn of modern advertising. Airlines
and travel companies use images of attractive people on
beaches or ski slopes in their marketing, display images of
attractive cabin crew on billboards and some airlines are
racier then others but few cross the line. The airlines that
do cross the line of catchy to tasteless are those who play
on shock value, such as Irelands Ryanair and Spirit Airlines

in the United States but Air India, Indias conservative

national flag carriers new ad campaign for the New York
Mumbai route may push the boundaries farther than even
Ryanair and Spirit Airlines.

Over the past few years Air India has struggled in the U.S.
market, facing new competitors. New York, once a strong hold for
the airline now faces competition from United Airlines, Jet
Airways, Delta (via Amsterdam) and other carriers, offering more
connections, alliance partners and better marketing. The cash
strapped Air India has been seeking ways to win back its once
lucrative routes and regain control of their brand image. Brand
image is important for all companies and especially important for
airlines.

Air Indias image has been tarnished for number of reasons over
the years, but the latest released potential advertising campaign
for the New York market misses the mark. The advertisement
depicts a surprised black man seemingly about to engage in oral
sex with a white woman, as an angry Indian lady, with an Air India
baggage tag on her bag, is poised to walk out. The tag line of the
ad reads Daily Direct Flights Between New York and Mumbai.
Now reach home faster.

It is unclear if the advertisement is being released, however a

source close to Air Indias North American marketing team has
stated this ad was created by a creative firm working with Air
India, using stock imagery, and submitted to the airline. Rohit
Rao, of AeroBlogger, was informed that the ad was presented to
Air India and the executives were horrified by, however the airline
states, the possibility that the advertisement may be used in the
future cannot be ruled out.

Catchy ads capture our attention, sexually suggestive ads keep

our attention, but offensive ads tend to tarnish brand image
and an airline with a tarnished brand image, desperately seeking
to be seen as a top tier travel experience in the skies does not
need to be associated with any of the messages conveyed in this
advertising for Air India.

Below is the racy and offensive Air India ad.

Happy Flying!

4. Intel and Sony really messed up with these ad campaigns.

Maybe they were both honest mistakes, but their ads might
as well have read Were Racists! Needless to say,
consumers were not impressed, and the ads were removed.
What can you learn? Be careful using race as a metaphor.
Chances are customers will read it as a metaphor for we
discriminate.

5.

6.

Humor, of course, is relative

But when you have an actor paint his face brown and put on a
stereotypical 'Indian' accent to promote a product, it's no surprise
some may get offended.
In Popchips' lastest online marketing campaign, Ashton
Kutcher plays the roles of five different 'bachelors' looking for
love through the World Wide Lovers dating service.
One such character is Raj, a 'bollywood producer' dressed in
traditional indian garb who talks about giving the Kardashians his
'bone' and randomly mentions he was once in a milking contest
Popchips CEO Keith Belling released this official statement:
"We received a lot feedback about the dating campaign parody
we launched today and appreciate everyone who took the time to
share their point of view. Our team worked hard to create a lighthearted parody featuring a variety of characters that was meant
to provide a few laughs. We did not intend to offend anyone. I
take full responsibility and apologize to anyone we offended."
The ad featuring Raj has since been removed but if you think
about it, the controversy is a great marketing scheme. It sure
gets people talking about the product!

7. A maid, who finds a mobile phone while cleaning the house,

furtively stuffs it inside her blouse and tries to slip out. But
unfortunately it rings at an inopportune moment exposing
her to her employer.
A new Tata DoCoMo ad has rubbed an association of domestic
helps the wrong way. The Gharkamgar Molkarni Sanghatna, an
association of domestic servants, has objected to a TV ad of Tata
DoCoMo, saying it depicted their profession in a bad light.
"We object to a commercial, which shows a maid, who finds a
mobile phone while cleaning the house, hiding it inside her
blouse. It is insulting," Eknath Mane, convenor of the association
said.

The Sanghatna
members would
hold

demonstrations outside the company office at Lalbaug in central

Mumbai on September 13 and demand apology for 'insulting'
domestic workers, he said.
Mane added that the advertisement seeks to brand the entire
community of domestic servants as thieves. "The company
officials are saying the ad has been withdrawn and are treating
the development casually," he said.
Another advertisement for the company shows a mother trying to
put her baby to sleep. As she quietly leaves the room the phone
rings waking the baby up again. The tag for the campaign is 'no
getting away'.