In the wake of this week’s Veet fiasco, we take a look at five advertising campaigns deemed controversial enough to be scrapped altogether. We would like to meet and question all of the people behind these campaigns, to ask them what they were thinking.
In the wake of this week’s Veet fiasco, we take a look at five advertising campaigns deemed controversial enough to be scrapped altogether. We would like to meet and question all of the people behind these campaigns, to ask them what they were thinking.
1) Paddy Power
In the run up to the Oscar Pistorius verdict, Paddy Power created a unbelievably offensive campaign that received over 5,200 complaints. The advert genuinely showed a photograph of Pistorius superimposed on a statue of an Oscar award. Next to it, the ad stated “It’s Oscar Time. Money back if he walks. We will refund all losing bets on the Oscar Pistorius trial if he is found not guilty.” Change.org received more than 122,000 signitatures to get the ad removed, and the ad was quite rightly scrapped.
2) L’Oreal
In a triumph for women everywhere, L’Oreal were forced to pull ads featuring Julia Roberts and and Christy Turlington after Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson lodged complaints with the Advertising Standards Authority about the magazine’s use of airbrushing.
3) Let there be beer
An advert for some of Britain’s biggest beer brands was pulled for implying that alcohol helps overcome nervousness and is linked to social success. In antithesis to what this video suggests, drinking alcohol does not calm your nerves when meeting your partner’s parents. Beer possesses no therapeutic qualities and actually makes you act like an idiot most of the time.
4) Lucozade
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0zlqD2NC2Q
This Lucozade ad was banned for claiming that its drink hydrates better than water. There are a number of reasons why this is a shame, firstly because £9 million was wasted, and secondly because Real Madrid striker Gareth Bale was no longer across our screens.
5) E-Cigarettes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrSavppUj1k
E-cigarettes are everywhere. Even people in Dalston smoke them. The normalisation of these fake little cigarettes are causing a huge ongoing debate in the UK, with many complaining that they normalise smoking and hide that they contain tobacco For this reason, the above ad was cut by the Advertising Standards Agency.
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