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Smart Brains, Stupid Balls, Banned Campaigns

Maybe the furore is catchy. Maybe, just maybe, the fine line between artistic expression and public information notices is not so clear in advertising. It only just happens that the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK has banned two adverts by popular clothing company DIESEL. The problem is visual and not, as one would have been led to think at a first viewing/reading the message portrayed. I had liked this campaign ever since I first spotted it at the DIESEL shop in Milan. It seems to focus on the different between “smart” and “stupid” – two not so abstracts stereotypes being compared. If you believe the campaign DIESEL is rooting for “stupid” who apparently has “balls” rather than “brain” and is therefore preferable in some way. The advertising agency did not oppose this apparent glorification of “stupidity” but was forced to ban the adverts on the basis of nudity/insinuations thereof. Shocking.

In the first of the two sample banned images we have here,  “stupid” woman meets security camera. She has gone through the painstaking labour of procuring a ladder and climbing up to the camera at torso level in order to flash her mammaries at a lifeless source. Stupid porn? I wouldn’t go that far. Provocative maybe but these days the penny falls on the side of those who would rather be protected from having their brain cells challenged with the unconventional.

Which brings us to the second option. “Stupid” (and sexy) here is oblivious to the dangers prowling behind her and readying for the kill. It is not very clear whether the “brains” that come as a standard accessory on “smart” would have been of any help in this scenario given that “eyes in the back of the head” or “retrovision” are still under development in even the most advanced versions of homo sapiens. In any case “stupid” here is ignoring the presence of its mammaries and is peering over them in an apparent attempt to photograph the contents of her underwear – which, judging by even the most precocious of bits of received information (viz. Barbie or Sindy) should not be much seeing as how the particular sex in question is blessed with a neat packaging of sexual organs on the interior of the human frame. We are not privy to any information as to whether “stupid” actually stole the camera and is performing the infamous prank that is as old as kodak of proceeding to waste the film with photos of behinds and genitalia – which admittedly would be quite a “stupid” thing to do.

Let’s face it.Tthere’s about as much of a pornographic element in these photos as you get with a  newsreader with a particularly daring décolleté.  If anything, socially speaking, the worst message being given out by DIESEL, if taken literally, is the imperative order to whoever reads these ads to “be stupid”. It’s meant to provoke. It’s an ad. They do not seriously require you to become stupid overnight and take to capturing breasts or genitalia on moving or static film. Then again that last fact is obvious to the smart people who see these ads. The larger majority might warrant protection from the danger of taking the message too literally (or from getting sexually provoked by the imagery involved) and that would be too much “stupid” to handle.

source: Diesel genitals and breast adverts banned for “serious offence”.

The (non-broadcast) Advertising Guidelines (UK)
The (Broadcast – TV & Radio) Codes (UK)

The Advertising Standards Authority said 33 people had complained that the adverts were offensive and unsuitable for children. It ruled the adverts breached responsible advertising and decency guidelines and should not appear again in poster form.

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