The most disturbing car ad starring Silvio Berlusconi you will see today

Via Ads of The World

Ball gags?!? This is part of a bizarre campaign, by JWT India, for a Ford with lots of trunk space.

The other executions show Michael Schumacher with rival drivers tied up in the back, and Paris Hilton having kidnapped the Kardashians.

Really weird and disturbing. I'm surprised the Ford brand is good with this.

Update: The ads were really created by Ford's Indian AOR, but were not ever approved.

Ford and its ad agency issued apologies for a tasteless Ford Figo ad — in which former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi is shown with a bunch of gagged and crying women in the trunk of his car — that was never meant to see the light of day. 

It turns out a young creative team at JWT India, Ford Figo's agency of record, made the spot and posted it to website Ads of the World without approval. (It has since been removed.)

Ford and WPP Group (owner of JWT) have nonetheless issued formal apologies.

Update 2: Not just the work of renegade creatives, apparently. Adland writes that "Bobby Pawar, JWT India's chief creative officer & managing partner, as well as Vijay SimhaVellanki, creative director at Blue Hive, a WPP unit dedicated to managing the Ford business, have been asked to resign."

I no longer weep for the future

One of the latest "kids today" rant topics is how demanding they are when it comes to the big high school party: the prom. USA Today reports that today's spoiled teens can demand an expense of $3000 and up on their big night. WikiAnswers suggests $200- $1000.

Which is why I was so impressed when I heard that my niece, Emma Robinson, and a number of her classmates at Ottawa's Nepean High School did something a little different. They hired what we like to call "The Red-And-White Limo":



That's right. The latecomers of the dreaded Generation Y are chartering public transit to their night to remember. And a hybrid bus at that! It's enough to make this longtime transit marketer all schmoopy.

Emma tells me that, split about 25 ways, the bus cost them just $12 each. Plus, of course, it meant no drunk driving at the prom. It was organized by her classmates Molly Hotson and Jasmine Silver.

"The whole idea behind this was that prom doesn't have to be serious or expensive, it's just a fun end to high school," she says.

Emma, who recently won a Cappie for her costume design in Nepean H.S.'s production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, took the fun one step further when it came to dressing herself and her date, Jacob. She made their clothes from scrap:



"Well, I wanted a relatively cheap prom," she explains. "The total cost of the fabric for my dress was $70. I went for a combination of retro glam and the traditional sort of prom princess look (by choosing the fuscia pink fabric). The suit jacket was a homage to all the ridiculous costumes I've put Jacob in over the years. It cost around $60. I used a $10 jacket from Value Village as a base, then added the zebra over top."

Responsibility? Creativity? Not taking themselves too seriously?

The kids are alright.