The most inappropriate "kids menu" ads ever

These ads are such obvious awards bait, I had to make Google Cape Town Fish Market to assure myself that the restaurant exists.

It does, but it's unlikely that any restaurant would pay for this many executions of such an unsettling concept. So it's either another "ghost ad" (to use Adland's terminology) or else the agency secured the account by putting up  a lot of extra work as compensation for the client allowing the creatives to do whatever they felt like.

There's a third alternative, that a family-oriented restaurant actually did think a campaign of teen sex, drugs,  baby burning and the occult was a great way to sell fish fingers. Hmmm...

All images via Ads of The World

Travel campaign offers a brutal take on mob mentality — but is it for real?

The submission on Ads of The World says "JWT, Gurgaon, India" but I have to give the J. Walter Thompson Company the benefit of my skepticism. The campaign is courting controversy in such a ham-fisted and immature way.

Above, the Vancouver Stanley Cup Riot (mistakenly labelled "Football Riot") stands in for what Charles Mackay coined as "the madness of crowds". As an ad concept, it's tenuous at best, contrasting the idea of "individual travel plans" against mob mentality.

But the creative team of Bobby Pawar, Priti Kapur, Sayantan Choudhury, Sumeer Mathur
and Sumonto Ghosh didn't stop there.

They decided to go after American anti-abortionists:

Dog fights:

Toddlers in Tiaras:

Gun obsession:

And racism:

Pretty ballsy social commentary, but what does it have to do with selling travel? All I get out of it is that Indian tourists should avoid North America at all costs. (Interestingly, Chariot India "journeys of discovery to India, Nepal and Bhutan, in South Asia," so maybe that was the idea all along.)

To me, this is another example of belief in the stupid old adage that there's "no such thing as bad publicity".  There is... for brands. It's the creative teams and agencies that really benefit from these "edgy" campaigns, as the ad community congratulates them for convincing someone else to pay for another self-serving attempt at notoriety.

What does a pedophile look like? #FdAdFriday

I'm trying to imagine the creative session at Herezie in Paris:

Copywriter: ..."and then it's really a pedophile holding his 'thumbs-up' in front of his face"

Art Director: "How do we know he's a pedophile?"

Copywriter: "I don't know... he's a creepy, middle-aged white guy. With a slightly open bathrobe."

Art Director: "Ewww... but is it campaignable?"

Copywriter: "Sure! We'll show that creeps can come from all ages. We'll have a young guy with a beard, a muscle shirt, and... a TEDDY BEAR!"

Art Director: "I guess we could put the same teddy bear in every ad, as a symbol of lost—


"Copywriter: "Yeah, yeah. Whatevs. But we need three."


Art Director: "Why?"


Copywriter: "We just do."

Art Director: "How about a fat, hairy shirtless guy? And he's bald?"


Copywriter: "Does he have a teddy bear?"


Art Director: "No, too many fuzzy things in one ad. He has a tin cup."


Copywriter: "Why a tin cup?"


Art Director: "I don't know. Can we wrap this up? It's almost wine-thirty."


Yes, it's a serious topic. But besides scaremongering, this campaign implies that sexual predators have a "look". They don't. Why is why so many "nice people" get away with it for so long.


Via Ads of The World 

The clown makeup turns the creepiness up to 11 #FdAdFriday

Three observations:

1) I'm pretty sure that even pedophiles are aware that sex with children is a crime.
2) Was the clown makeup tie-in to Carnival necessary?
3) The body copy's broken English is really awkward.

Via Ads of The World

F'd Ad Fridays: How many kinds of uncomfortable can you fit into one ad?

In this case, many. And not just the topic, or the visual of the old guy with the teenage prostitute. Asking Canadians abroad to spy on their fellow tourists makes me uncomfortable too. Cybertip is a snitch site that usually focusses on internet child pornography, and does a pretty good job of it. But what they are not very good at is not being creepy when the advertise.

It's not as easy issue to address. But the new ad, by BCP, seems like the wrong way to approach it—both strategically and creatively. AoTW says the real client is the International Bureau for Children's Rights, who do fight against sex tourism. But why would a Canadian in (for example) Cuba contact a Canadian child porn tip site if they suspected another (Canadian?) tourist was hiring the sexual services of a local youth? How exactly is that supposed to work?

According to Cybertip's report form:

Sex tourism or, more specifically, traveling to a foreign country to engage in sexual activity with a child, has become a well-developed component of the commercial-sexual exploitation of children. It is an offence under the Criminal Code for a Canadian to engage in this activity. A person can be tried for this offence upon return to Canada. The offender will be treated as if the incident occurred on Canadian soil, and the penalties will be the same as if the offences had occurred in Canada.

Which is all well, but you would need evidence. Are you supposed to contact local authorities? Ask them what their name is? Take a picture? Or just creepily stare at them through your Foster Grants until they turn themselves in?

It's an important issue requiring public awareness and education. But this ad is just confusing.

F'd Ad Fridays: Oh, that poor little... GAH!

Copyranter reports that this is a German ad from 2004. But age has not tempered its shock value:

Those crazy Germans.

Junk

AdFreak posted this creepy-as-hell PSA intended to combat child obesity in Australia:



I am just as concerned as any parent about the poor eating habits so many people are teaching to their kids. But comparing feeding them junk food to injecting them with... well... junk? It's offensive on so many levels.

He'll soon start mugging people to support his Happy Meal habit.

First of all, the occasional fast food burger is relatively harmless, and does indeed contain some nutrition. Second, heroin addiction is way too serious a social issue to be treated so lightly. Third, as I keep saying, shock and shame advertising is rarely effective in social marketing.

If you're going to call people bad parents for doing something completely ordinary, you are really unlikely to reach anyone who really needs the message. There are better ways to inspire change.

Breast Ironing in Cameroon. Yes, I said "breast ironing"...

This ~8 minute documentary by the Current focuses on a weird but tragic new cultural trend in Cameroon called "breast ironing".

If that term itself doesn't already have my female readers cringing, here is a description from the accompanying article:

The 'ritual' is performed by massaging the girls' chests with heated objects like stones, in order to reverse their pubescent development. The mums say it's driven by fear of unwanted male attention, rape and pre-marital pregnancies.

Now that you've been duly warned, here's the video. It's appropriately graphic and disturbing:



This is one of those situations, like genital mutilation, that tests our respect for cultural differences among humanity. How could any mother do that to her daughter? How could anyone think that the masking of secondary sex characteristics is proof against sexual activity — or, for that matter victimization?

There is something you can do about it. The African National Network of Aunties Associations, RENATA, is campaigning against the practice.

From their campaign site:

Problem:

- 24% have experienced breast ‘ironing’
- It includes the use of hot objects (spoons, herbs, stones or leaves) or salt and petrol
- The risk of having the breasts ‘ironed’ is twice for girls who develop breasts before the age of nine years

Why are the breasts of adolescents ironed?

Many people think:

- That the breasts will attract men
- That the breasts make girls sexually active early and that they risk to become pregnant
- That the girls can grow up normally and can continue their education when their breasts are ‘ironed’

Consequences:

- Massaging the breasts of girls with hot objects terribly hurts and can completely destroy the breasts
- Breast ‘ironing’ can traumatize and negatively affect the girls for the rest of their lives
- It can have negative influence on their sexual behavior
- Physical consequences of breast ‘ironing’ are: horrible pain, abscess and itching, leakage of milk, cysts, picks on the breast, infection of the breasts and strong fever, asymmetric breasts, total disappearance of breasts
- This practice can favor the risk of developing breast cancer

RENATA takes donations of as little at $10 online. Let's just leave it at that.