Dumb e-cig ad is a throwback to a more racist era

This ad, from Belfast, is kind of shocking in its cluelessness. Taboo love between a mature white woman and a young black man! The scandal!

Fortunately, according to campaign, the Northern Irish didn't like it much either. The Advertising Standards Authority received several complaints, and ruled that "consumers viewing the ad would believe it was presenting a relationship between an older and younger individual, particularly an older woman and a younger man, and a couple of different races, as something that was unusual or socially unacceptable."

The ad has been ordered removed, which is always a touchy subject. I far prefer when brands willingly remove ads because it's in their best interests not to piss off customers by pretending it's still the 1950s.

The worst road safety shock ad you will see this week

Spoiler: They all die

Redditor JamieDrogheda shared this really dreadful PSA two days ago, for the Department of The Environment in Northern Ireland.

The Belfast Telegraph calls it "more closely resembling something like Sharknado than a traditional road safety ad." The ASA won't let it be shown on TV before 9 pm.

I'll simply call it overwrought, manipulative and misguided:



This kind of shock ad should stay in the 1970s, the golden age of driving school snuff films. Nobody, absolutely nobody, is going to drive more slowly because of this ad. Instead of seeing it as a symbolic slaughter of all the children killed by speeding, they're more likely to see it as almost comical.

Just look at the "special effects":

The teacher doesn't seem too concerned by the flattened children.