A total of 17 complaints, lead the Advertising Standards Complaints Board to review a Toyota Rav 4 ad by Saatchi & Saatchi. It was found to have "breached three principles in its code of ethics: that advertisements should be prepared with a due sense of social responsibility, should not contain anything likely to cause serious or widespread offence, and should not contain dangerous practices which encourage a disregard for safety." They also claim that 17 complaints constitutes evidence of widespread concern.
Brilliant spoof of Sony Bravia spot. Done by the guys over at Clemmow Hornby Inge.
What a surprise...Apple's new spots are already being spoofed.
Check out the the spoofs titled "Crap", "Porn", and "Sharing" inside.
Sqaure eyed super adgrunts and other adnerds probably recall last years BT advert "talk talk" where people seen from above dance into different shapes, such as a rolling pram, a couple of children and a heart pierced by an arrow. Re-see it here at chiadvertising.
Seems that the crew who can dance like this have a great agent, because we found another ad where they do the same thing thanks to a friendly adnerd named Joost. Talk Talk 'shapes' shameless copy inside.
You probably recall the fuss kicked up by Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss back in 2003, as the Honda Cog spot created by Wieden & Kennedy was a wee bit too close to their award-winning 1987 masterpiece, Der Lauf Der Dinge (The Way Things Go).
Well, for all of you who never saw the way things go, here you go, 29 min 45 sec of things going..and going..and going...
For comparisons sake:
The Honda Cog advert is in the archive, weighs 8.6 MB - super adgrunts can watch it.
These two spots sound alike to us, but what the bleep do we know?
The ad story that just won't die this month seems to be Australia's "Where the bloody hell are you?" campaign. It launched the last week of February and was created by M&C Saatchi in Sydney.
First, the ad was restricted in the UK for the word "bloody", which was eventually overturned after the Australian Tourism Minister, Fran Bailey, took a trip to London to defend the use of the word in the campaign.
Then Canada's CBC restricted the spot during family broadcasts for the ad for the use of "hell." Now, they are asking for the ad to be edited to remove a shot showing a half-full pint of beer.
The British restriction on the Australian tourism ad "Where the bloody hell are you?" which was not allowed to run in its original form because of the use of "bloody" has been reversed. The Australian Tourism Minister, Fran Bailey, flew to London in the hopes of saving the campaign.
"I am pleased that common sense prevailed and the regulators realised the campaign was intended to be cheeky, friendly and very Australian," Bailey told reporters.
I doubt the Australians are that upset though since the TV ban provided a ton of free publicity for Tourism Australia, which said it had created "an on-line traffic jam" around the A$180 million campaign.
The end of last month we reported on Australia's new tourism campaign featuring the tagline, "Where the bloody hell are you?". Now the UK's Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre has restricted the ad.
"How anyone can take offence at a beautiful girl in a bikini on a sunny beach inviting them to visit Down Under is a mystery to me," Federal Tourism Minister Fran Bailey said.
Tourism Australia managing director Scott Morrison said the ban, which applied only to the use of the word "bloody" on commercial television, was "a marketer's dream.""We would have preferred the ad to run the way we first made it, but we can still run it the way it is cut now, which says 'Where the hell are you?'," Mr Morrison said. "It is not as if it is not going to be shown on UK television. It will be shown. It will just have that slight adjustment to it. It will be run in its original format on the internet, in cinemas and everywhere else."
Diesel's Scoprion ad has been banned by the ASA after a run in The Sunday Times Style Magazine lead to complains.
The complainants objected that the position of the women's legs around the man's body overtly suggested sexual behaviour and was therefore offensive. They were also concerned that the image was unsuitable in a magazine that might be seen by children. One complainant, who believed the man in the ad was black, objected that the ad was racist.
We've all see Saatchi copies Saatchi? Where Sunny D and Verve both caught the sun.
Seems that the "husband/wife competing for your product" concept has been done and done and done yet again. We found three, but there are sure to be even more of these out there. SuperAdgrunts, check out the similarities in these spots for Toyota Rav4, Mercury, and Kohler.
In Denmark the candy-brand Katjes have been slapped with an ad ban. The german brand Katjes have been selling their winegums with a false promise, and a top model named Heidi Klum. In one of the ads (screenshots below) Heidi talks to the camera about inner beauty, and that red noses and big ears don't matter "...it's just more to bite into" she giggles as she devours a winegum. The end tagline says "Katjes - yes yes yes!" and promises that their winegums only have 0.3% fat.
What do a Romanian pharmaceutical company and a private luxury jet arm of United Airlines have in common? Their logo. Dada dada tips us off to these logo twins.
A Disaronno ad from 2003 and originally from the US aired in UK cinemas recently. But, it has now been banned for sexual overtones and "was in breach of guidelines linking sexual pleasure with alcohol consumption."
This ad is just one among other brands that have felt the hand of the ASA. Young's Bitter and Lambrini have been rapped in the past for the same violations.
SuperAdgrunts, see the "banned" spot here:
Disaronno-Pass the pleasure around - "Ice Cube"
Advertising's going to the dogs and this badlander proves it.
Oh no, not again! It seems that the band Groovecutters, is accusing French Connection and its advertising agency Beattie McGuinness Bungay of 'ripping off' their music video for their Kung-fu lesbian TV/Cinema ad that starting airing in the UK on Sunday and made headlines because of the number of complaints it had received.
Kev Keane, one of Groovecutters, said: "It's such a rip-off. I am not even sure if FCUK know how much of a copy it is. Would they have approved it if they knew it was not specially created for them to spearhead their £2m campaign.
"It just makes me laugh that something that was created for our track has been changed into something that symbolizes French Connection's latest corporate message."
When I spotted (bad pun intended) Duval Guillaume's new campaign for one second breath mint I was instantly reminded of the Badlander Pore Bore back in 2k. But hey it's been six years I s'pose that now is as good a time as any to revive an old look and call it a "clearly differentiating visual style...." as CD/AD Dirk Domen said to Creativity magazine, even though it isn't. Read more to see the ads and a few more 50's cartoon style ads.
Previous hype on "one second", the world first one second advert, which wasn't the worlds first one-second advert at all.
Another set on our little list of twin logos. One mans cheap printing is another mans shopping center located at the harbour where the fish mongers used to be. Just proof that when you simplify things enough, it could be anything really. ;)
Previus logo mishaps: Xerox vs Logoworks, Quark and the scottish art council, Hampel Global Toilets and Hyregästföreningen, The EU presidency vs Bruges Group.
Brandon at TextURL has spotted two cloned cow udders, visual representations that look and say pretty much exactly the same thing. A badlandian pair as good as any.
It's as if Saatchi held season tickets to a certain style of execution.... I'll let our tipster spread some light on how this little synchronicity might have happened..
Saatchi first used the idea thru its London office then again thru its NY office 8 years later. The sunny delight spot was first produced by the London office... and then..
Superheros are popular in ads. But this set of badlanders for Walt Disney World and Prudential Financial share the idea that Mom and Dad are superheros. And yes, they are dressed in the appropriate garb for superhero greatness. Read on to see the idea twins.
At least eightynine people complained about the gay kiss in the Dolce & Gabbana advert which super adgrunts can see here. However, this is not a good enough reason to ban it, says the ASA :
"We did not consider that a kiss between two men automatically made an ad unacceptable for broadcast or that the kiss was in itself grounds for imposing a stricter timing restriction," it said in its ruling.
New Zealand's ASA has upheld the complaint of shoe retailer Tongue's risqué billboard ad, finding it indecent.
Triple badlander - for those who can't count. Google's prime number billboard versus BMG's trade poster.
The first ad victim of the ban-hammer is rather tame, but bound to offend someone in "80% Catholic" Lithuania.
Beer-brewing company Kalnapilio-Tauro Grupe have been "condemned" by the Catholic Church in Lithuania, as Kalnapilio-Tauro used an image of Jesus Christ wearing headphones to advertise its beer. "Many believers are hurt and outraged that the Saviour's image... was used for advertising beer," said Archibishop Sigitas Tamkevicius in a statement. "The use of Catholic symbols for commercial purposes and especially for advertising alcoholic beverages is absolutely unjustifiable." Why the headphones? Well, if you bought a beer you could win a CD. God help them, as that's not very creative at all. ;)
Once it's a coincidence, twice it might be something else.
How ironic it is that the ads for creative award shows should end up in Badland due to lack of creativity..... this is a pairing you must see!
The same idea sells two different cars on two sides of the pond. American Toyota versus British Volkswagen - now updated with a cherry Canadian Ikea on top. Bo-yah!
Scott @ the Media Orchard tips us to this post Environmentally Unconscious, a rant about Kia's "Save the Greenbacks" Campaign, posted on Tuesday January 10, 2006. Something which, oddly enough, was posted at the DailyKos Monday Jan 09, but links to Tuesdays post at the Orchard. How twilight zone! ;)
Anyway, their point is that ads parodying Greenpeace type actions when talking about gas guzzling cars ain't very smart. On that we might agree, though I'm much more enraged by the plagiarism, as Toyota did that idea better back in 2004! Super adgrunts, see for yourself:
Old timer adgrunt AndrejX suggested these two ads as badlanders - and we must admit, never seen such dead on twin ideas before. Well, not too often anyway. ;)
In the Moldovan captial, Chisinau, authorities have ordered billboards using the image of a woman's legs to advertising pantyhose to be removed.
Acting mayor Vasily Ursu said earlier that showing women’s legs on billboards was contrary to the standards of ethics and advised designers to look for a more creative solution than just capturing bare legs.
Ursu, however, said: "If you show me similar billboards in other cities, I may let them be used again."
You can see the image of the "offensive" legs at the link above.
Last week we reported on JWT in London placing ads for their "Don't Drink and Drive" campaign in the UK's AutoTrader. Adgrunt Stealthman alerted us to the fact that Clememger BBDO in Wellington, NZ had done the same exact thing in 2001 for LTSA (Land Transport Safety Authority) which appeared in the NZ AutoTrader. The idea won a Clio and other NZ industry awards including ones for media.
Read more to see the ads.
The Advertising Standards Authority has banned its first internet viral ad.
They defended it for a long time, the infamous faces advert for digital TV, but the BBC has been forced to withdraw the advert with the creepy head, made up of lots of smaller heads. At the end of November it had only received 400 complaints, but now that number has climbed to 1,300 complaints.
A spokesman for the BBC is trying to save face - heh - by stating that the trailer had simply "finished slightly early", after it "achieved its goal".
The BBC's own website is witness to how much people were genuinly creeped out by the image - comments include:
"As a registered psychotherapist, I wish to protest that this image is disturbingly psychotic. Its unacknowledged aggression could make a fragile viewer ill".
Another entry reads: "I was having my dinner when the advert came on and it was all I could do to keep my food down. The images actually made my skin crawl."
Down in Belgium the animal rights activist group GAIA has gotten their anti-Foie gras campaign banned, sorta. The railway company where the ads were meant to run won't have them because they find the images "too shocking".
If account people don't kill a fun concept, then the lawyers will. This moving spot was banned from officially airing on television.
A billboard featuring a nude Italian singer sponsored by fitness company, PerfectUK.com has been banned by the ASA.
When you're in Badland, you can always run, but you can never hide.
The French telecom market is adopting the 118 number for direct enquieries just like in the UK a couple of years ago. And while they were at it, one client in France decided to adapt to the local market the same advertising campaign that made its mark in the UK. The result is this campaign for 118 218, directly taken from the brilliant UK 118 118 campaign by WCRS in London, and proof that some ideas should never cross the Channel.
Judge for yourself:
118 218 (France) : https://www.lenumero.fr/films.html
Is something going on? The iTunes spot on Apple's sites won't play. Athough they did air over the weekend. Is it because it's similar to a 2002 Lugz ad?
View Apple's iTunes spot featuring Eminem or here (via AdFreak)
The Lugz "Arrow" spot from 2002 (superadgrunts click to watch): 
From ever entertaining Screenhead.com
A whopping six people complained about a billboard campaign in New Zealand for Alibi Jeans by King Street Advertising. The Advertising Standards Complaints Board has now labelled the ads offensive.
One of the complainees was concerned about school children and the general public being exposed to "this level of gratuitous sexual intent".
"The lump under the sheet where his genitals would be leaves no doubt as to her intention," the complainant said.
However, Alibi Jeans said the concept showed "the empowerment of women using a typically male scenario".
Read on to see the "offensive ad".
An ad encouraging men to get checked for prostate cancer, starring Ricky Gervais, comedian with a past as a new wave popstar now most famous for his role as David Brent in "The Office", has banned from radio waves before nine pm as it was too offensive.. A soundeffect has also been removed from the ad - a 'squish' noise - to santize the ad. Why? Well it's a touchy subject (pun intended) I guess. The sound effect is in the ad as Ricky who plays the doctor is inserting a finger to check the prostate.
Things are disappearing all over Badland, but at least the pet dog didn't go anywhere.