![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
For the past few weeks, my attention’s repeatedly snarled on a series of no-doubt-well-intended ads against bullying. As far as I can decipher, the theme is “if your kid is happy and sociable at home but miserable at school, you might want to investigate why,” and I’m all for that, but someone at the ad agency phrases everything like the world’s flattest koan, and then there’s the one with a photo of a middle-school girl who “dreams of being a fashion designer. Her friends say her outfits are a nightmare,” and all I can think is why is this child attending school with bitchy 1950s socialites?
“Darling, you look an absolute nightmare. Go home and change at once.”
I’m hardly the expert on What the Kids Are Calling Things These Days, but I’m pretty sure a tween who wanted to insult someone’s dress sense would be more likely to use a term like “basic.”
Anyway, the ads aren’t as bad as the late ‘nineties PSAs that made me want to take up smoking out of sheer spite — these ones don’t make me wish to bully any kids, but I do kind of want to find and glare at the copywriter.
“Darling, you look an absolute nightmare. Go home and change at once.”
I’m hardly the expert on What the Kids Are Calling Things These Days, but I’m pretty sure a tween who wanted to insult someone’s dress sense would be more likely to use a term like “basic.”
Anyway, the ads aren’t as bad as the late ‘nineties PSAs that made me want to take up smoking out of sheer spite — these ones don’t make me wish to bully any kids, but I do kind of want to find and glare at the copywriter.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Signs of the times
Date: 2017-11-21 01:27 am (UTC)From:PSAs often don't work out. A famous example was the Tex Avery one for the army warning of the dangers of STDs. Of course, the way he drew the Femme Fatale made most GIs in the exit interviews say that 'but it'd be worth it!' The Gold Standard is, of course, "Dumb Ways to Die" video from down under which got about 160 million views on youTube (not to mention the "Movie Parody Version" and spawned a mobile app and desktop game empire.
Re: Signs of the times
Date: 2017-11-21 02:42 am (UTC)From:I just saw that video for the first time a few weeks ago. Since it's now stuck in my head again, I'd call it a success.
no subject
Date: 2017-11-21 02:45 am (UTC)From:My single favorite failed advertisement is Outpost.com's gerbil cannon. I have remembered that advertisement for nearly twenty years, but I never remember what the company actually sold unless I look it up. I feel that this is a win for memorability, but a dead loss for capitalism.
no subject
Date: 2017-11-22 05:14 am (UTC)From: