fat, bald and ugly!!
i don’t know if any of you have come across this one yet:
drink ads ordered to use ugly men!
Drinks companies have been ordered to use uglier men in their advertising campaigns.The Advertising Standards Authority believes “balding” and “paunchy” men would be less likely to encourage women to drink to achieve social success.The new advertising code stresses that links must not be made between alcohol and seduction.
A campaign for popular sparkling drink Lambrini has become the first to fall foul of the new rules.
The Authority objected to a poster which showed three women “hooking” a slim, young man in a parody of a fairground game.
The industry regulator instructed the firm: “We would advise that the man in the picture should be unattractive - ie overweight, middle-aged, balding etc.
ridiculous, isn’t it?
first of all, ‘ugly’ is a horrible word (when used to describe the way someone looks). secondly, to then bracket someone who is MIDDLE AGED (since when did age have anything to do with looks??? and isn’t brad pitt over forty?) or overweight or balding as that is even worse!
this is so goddamn hypocritical - for as long as i can remember, beer ads (aimed at men) have been showing hot women. in fact, almost all advertising aimed at men shows a chick with big tits, long legs, big hair, red nails and mouth, going ga-ga over the man for using that particular brand. and you know, its all good since it’s just a woman, and she was always meant to be decorative anyway.
but now that we’re objectifying MEN and using the hotter ones in ads, to encourage women to do (bad, bad) things like drinking beer (i find their faith in the power of advertising quite misplaced, to begin with), it’s suddenly all wrong.
i can’t believe they are allowed to get away with this crap.
however, on the plus side, based on their stupid qualifications for ugly, my dad (and most of the adult male population) can finally star in a commercial!
So, then…the Swedish bikini team is out, too?
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and cannot be legislated, for or against. How incredibly dumb.
Comment by Kristie — August 2, 2005 @ 3:00 am
No Kristie, the scandanavian bombshells stays on. You shouldn’t even ask.
They should take this dumb ass board on and create ads with fuglys hooking boozed up. Lets have some truth in advertising for once.
The aussie version of ‘Vice & Virtue’ council should follow shortly.
Comment by ali — August 2, 2005 @ 8:04 am
This just reaffirms my view on the immorality of advertising! What’s wrong with using “normal” people, men/women of all ages, colours, creeds to sell a product?
Comment by uberhomme — August 2, 2005 @ 8:18 am
can I bring the new dove campaign to your attention?
http://slate.msn.com/id/2123659/
oh and check this out:
“Really, the only time I want to see a thigh that big is in a bucket with bread crumbs on it”
http://www.suntimes.com/output/lifestyles/cst-ftr-dovemain19.html
Comment by loki — August 2, 2005 @ 9:06 am
ahem - wud be fun of our FAVE actors in such a situation - picture ppl we LOVE to HATE
hehehe,… plus, YIPPEE for hindi films. yes, yes, ive had pppl want to “make” FRANDSIP with me too
Comment by closetalk — August 2, 2005 @ 1:06 pm
‘ugly’ men in drink commercials, hey? well, it wouldn’t work for me anyway since i am already a hopeless alcoholic, and don’t need to be sold on any of these products.
Comment by fleecey — August 2, 2005 @ 6:37 pm
Raay for equal opps for fat middle-aged men! I could make it big, and since I have a huge amount of hair I’m going to look like a God by comparison, life starts to look up!
Indian chat lines, fame and fortune off the telly, nice. I am also available for children’s parties!
Comment by Red Baron — August 2, 2005 @ 8:33 pm
Whats wrong with using ‘normal people in advertising is nobody aspires to your product. And then nobody buys it. No one wants to spend good money on a new product or service to get average results, maybe some ugly people do. But you certainly don’t want to get your brand name associated with the ugly.
Uberhomme, whats the deal with the name. You can’t champion the cause of the normal people and claim super-ness for your self.
Nice job Loki bringing up the dove ads. In the mind of every guy I talked to and a number of women, Dove = Fat, average looking, sassy chicks. That is why I think this Dove ad campaign is going away faster than a pizza between the six heffers on their billboards.
There is nothing wrong with being average. But getting celebrated is not a right. That position should be reserved for the exceptional.
If I was a young aussie chick, I would be offended by the patronizing attitude of that standards board.
People don’t need to be patronized. You could flood the view field with average and they’ll still seek out the great in the corner. That is true for music, literature, technology, athleticism, and yes beauty.
Nobody is hating the tall, or the strong, or the smart. All of them abilities people were born with. And no one is campaiging for celebrating the average here. Why the dicrimination against beauty then.
And like above criteria, beauty is not subjective. That thing about beauty being in the eye of the beholder is the biggest load of BS out there. No, it is not. Beauty is in the sizes, and shapes of features and their relations in the space of a person. Just like it is for any designed object. A trained eye will find beauty regardless of ethnicity, gender, or even age. How low is your self esteem if not being beautiful is going to destroy you. I don’t let not being brainy get in my way.
Comment by ali — August 3, 2005 @ 3:58 pm
ali, that last line of yours actually made me burst out laughing!!
Comment by rocky — August 6, 2005 @ 7:41 am