Oh how times have changed. Over the years advertising has gone through some drastic changes. What once was perfectly acceptable before the 1960’s is now seen as socially or personally demeaning. The proof comes when you search through advertising archives, and find yourself stunned and shocked at what we used to ‘get away with’.
Society has worked hard to achieve equality, with the fight for women’s rights and the plea to banish racism amongst other issues. It is sometimes forgotten just how far we have come until you take a step back in time.
Today, we are generally extremely politically correct, some say perhaps too much so, however society has reached new heights in equality and protection against minority groups or individuals. Something that is strongly referenced through our advertising.
Since 1962, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the UK’s self-regulatory organisation, have been responsible for ensuring that no ads are released that may cause offence or misdemeanour. Something that was not apparent before the 1960’s judging by the below examples.
The last one (‘Men are better than women’!) is particularly straight to the point! As you can see, some statements that would not be tolerated in this era, and they’re not the worst of them!
On the other hand there are many examples of recent ads that have been banned by the ASA for being demeaning or unrealistic, and perhaps would be seen by most as quite acceptable. There are a lot of examples to be found on the internet- these are some of my favourites.
- Phones4U, ‘Upgrades 4 U and U and U’ – 2 ads were recently banned by the ASA for misleading customers into thinking that anyone could upgrade, whereas it was not clear enough that customers on networks such as Three and Tesco Mobile were not eligible to upgrade.
- Special K – an ad was banned where a woman pours milk over her Special K cereal. The ad claims that the bowl contained 114 calories, but failed to account for the milk. This was deemed as misleading to customers.
- Snickers, ‘Get some nuts’ – the popular Mr T ad where a truck pulls up to a man exercising in yellow shorts and shouts “Speed walking. I pity you fool. You are a disgrace to the man race. It’s time to run like a real man….Snickers. Get some nuts” The ad was taken off air after being deemed as homophobic.
- Big Fat Gypsy Weddings – A billboard ad featured the words ‘Bigger. Fatter. Gypsier’ across an image of 3 young gypsy girls. It was accepted until complaints from the Irish Travellers Movement in Britain (ITMB) made complaints that the ads were racially demeaning and exposed their children to bullying and abuse.
- Toyota GT86 ad – the ad featured a Grand Theft Auto style film before bursting through glass into ‘the real world’ – the ad was said to be encouraging dangerous driving and was taken off air.
When you see the difference between those that were once allowed and those of current times that are banned, you’ll see that there is quite a difference in tolerance, despite the odd crazy cats pushing the boundaries. Some say that the regulations in current times are far too strong – but based on the above, would we want to ever get back to where we were in the 1960’s? Let us know what you think.
Emma Dobson is a branding expert and Touch Point guru at Happy Creative, a full service marketing agency based in Blackpool, Lancashire. To learn more or contact us please go to www.happy-creative.co.uk
