Red Bull finds out it's still "too soon" to make Titanic jokes in ads

The Telegraph

A couple of days ago, AT&T and other brands took a lot of flack online for using the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as subject matter for advertising and social media promotions. "Still too soon," is the general response.

But what about something that happened more than a century ago? Red Bull probably thought that the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic was fair game for a laugh. Sure, more than 1500 people died that night. But surely with the passing of time, and survivors, this one is fair game for a gag?

Apparently not. The Telegraph reports that Britain's Advertising Standards Authority has received 42 complaints about the ad, calling it "tasteless" and "offensive" (although they haven't yet launched any action against it). Clifford Ismay, a relative of Titanic owner Joseph Bruce Ismay, called it "despicable."

Howard Nelson, founder of The Titanic Heritage Trust, went into detail:

"It is very offensive and just disrespectful. We appreciate there will be commercial ventures involving the Titanic which we say is fine - as long as it is in good taste and respectful. 

This is not. 

There is a difference between making a joke and this. I get jokes all the time about icebergs and the like, taking the mick out of my interest in the Titanic, but that is banter. This is blatantly offensive because it is taking the mick out of the people who have passed away. 

It would be the same if someone did something similar about 9/11 - there would be an uproar. This is no different."

Is it no different? I've grown up with the Titanic as more of a symbol than as a real event, since it's such an icon in popular culture. People have been making Titanic jokes, and using the ship's sinking as a clichéd metaphor, for generations. I can understand why Red Bull didn't anticipate the backlash.

But perhaps the biggest difference between the Titanic and horrors such as 9/11 or the Holocaust is that the ship's sinking was a tragedy while terrorism and genocide are something much worse. To joke about the latter isn't just to joke about death, but to make light of the human evils that deliberately caused those deaths. That's the difference.

Not to say that the Red Bull ad is tasteful, mind you.

But in my opinion it's not as bad as what The Onion was implying with their horrifying satire of opportunistic 9/11 ads:

Feels different, doesn't it?

For photographer Jonathan Hobin, tragedy is child's play

In the artist's own words:

In the Playroom is a metaphor for the impossibility of a protective space safe from the reach of modern media. The quizzical disposition of youth and the pervasive nature of the media are symbolically represented in Hobin’s images through tableau-vivant re-enactments of the very current events that adults might wish to keep out of their child’s world. Just as children make a game of pretending to be adults as a way to prepare and ultimately take on these roles in later life, so too do they explore things that they hear or see, whether or not they completely understand the magnitude of the event or the implications of their play.

 Okay, I get it. But I was eight when Jim Jones served that Guyana Kool-Aid to more than 900 men, women and children, and I don't recall wanting to re-enact it...

The 1981 Reagan assassination attempt, however, we did pantomime in the schoolyard. But mostly just because we were boys and, you know, guns. (Although the Lennon assassination was off bounds because we were such Beatles fans...)

See the whole series at Petapixel. (Mr. Hobin's site is presently offline.)

Mother Nature resists automotive sponsorship — with a vengeance

Mark sent me a sad story of PR gone horribly wrong.

In Germany, Mini Deutschland paid the Institute for Meteorology at the Free University in Berlin the standard €199 "Adopt-a-Vortex" fee to have in incoming cold front named "Cooper". The agency, Sassenbach, had said they wanted a wind- and weather-proof idea" to promote the soft top Mini Roadster. 

I assume this was supposed to be ironic. But the real (and very sad) irony began when Cooper started killing people:

Also note unfortunate Expedia headline.

BBC reports:

"In a statement, the carmaker said it could not influence exactly when names for weather fronts would be used, or what a weather system would do. 

It said it deeply regretted that the weather front had taken on 'catastrophic proportions' and claimed so many lives."

In other news, Mother Nature hates cars.