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Cab Men II: Because fact into doubt won't go

Started by Fambo Number Mive, March 29, 2018, 09:48:16 AM

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Fambo Number Mive

Kicking off with an interesting article from the BBC on whether adverts are deliberately being racist to get noticed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-43554424

I am not sure if adverts are deliberately being racist but corporations certainly rely on offending people to get noticed. Look at how complaints to the ASA get them media coverage.

Icehaven

It's quite hard to believe in 2018 rooms full of executives at an ad agency and rooms full of executives at the client business would fail to spot how that Heineken advert could be construed as racist, or indeed somehow miss spotting any ad with the potential to be anything-ist or -ophobic, so I'd be inclined to think there's some truth in that theory, although surely ''all publicity is good publicity'' has it's limits?

Chriddof

Sadly Heineken have form with this. They sponsored the 1990s ITV late night music/chat show "Hotel Babylon" (not to be confused with the BBC drama from about ten years later) and the bosses at their Dutch headquarters apparently complained in a fax later leaked to the press that there wasn't enough shots of the beer, and that "there were too many black people". The resulting scandal ended up bringing down the whole show.

Sebastian Cobb

Member the racist '90s Scalextric ad?

https://youtu.be/Spz_FIsmXRI

Thought it was earlier than '98.

Sebastian Cobb

Of course the opposite of channelling outrage at something problematic is to channel the outrage of angry neckbeards. Can't help cynically thinking that's what was done with things like the Ghostbusters revamp.

I guess both of them involve pitting 'the sjw's' and 'the neckbeards' against each other so there's loads of noise that penetrates the consciousness of most normal people who lie somewhere between the two.

marquis_de_sad

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on March 29, 2018, 07:49:22 PM
Member the racist '90s Scalextric ad?

https://youtu.be/Spz_FIsmXRI

Thought it was earlier than '98.

Isn't that Danny Cunningham (from 24 Hour Party People and I'm Alan Partridge)?

BlodwynPig

That's an odd advert isn't it. I love it. Very post-modern acting.

Much better than the Ecosia advert guy I just saw pop up on Youtube.

mothman

Fuck me. I don't reember that one.

But is it racist though? All it's driving home is that the child obviously isn't his, but he's too busy having his mind blown by the fact that he's got a son, so they can get a Scalextric, to notice?

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: mothman on March 29, 2018, 11:05:18 PM
Fuck me. I don't reember that one.

But is it racist though? All it's driving home is that the child obviously isn't his, but he's too busy having his mind blown by the fact that he's got a son, so they can get a Scalextric, to notice?

It is a bit I think. Whether or not it's 'problematic' or not is probably a different question. I guess we can all agree if it was aired to day there would be lots of paragraphs in the newspapers and on the blogs telling us what to think about it.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on March 29, 2018, 11:40:25 PM
It is a bit I think. Whether or not it's 'problematic' or not is probably a different question. I guess we can all agree if it was aired to day there would be lots of paragraphs in the newspapers and on the blogs telling us what to think about it.

it's a phenomenally strange advert though. Like a Jaaaam sketch without the humour.

marquis_de_sad

If the baby's skin colour wasn't different from both parents, then how could the joke work?

Bronzy

The fact that people (well, one person at least) still remember it despite it being over 20 years old sort of proves that it works as an advert.

All PR is good PR and all that.

Mister Six

Yeah, that's not racist. It's not saying anything about black people or even a specific black person. Some identity politics wanker could probably still get a 9,000-word Tumblr post out of it though.

mothman

There is no one simple answer to this. Which is why both extremes of the political spectrum so love these things - they can use it to justify whatever the hell they want. On the one hand, it's a race of people being reduced to a punchline, with them set out as the other, the unexpected, the unwanted, the wrong; on the other, well, it's almost inclusive, isn't it? He's seeing past the obvious difference to focus on what unites them instead.

Depressed Beyond Tables


jobotic

Back to the present day, hearing Paloma Faith foghorning out a perfectly pleasant Mama Cass song every fifteen minutes is pissing me right off is delightfully quirky.

Icehaven

Quote from: jobotic on March 30, 2018, 10:43:43 PM
Back to the present day, hearing Paloma Faith foghorning out a perfectly pleasant Mama Cass song every fifteen minutes is pissing me right off is delightfully quirky.

Paloma Faith's media presence consistently surprises me as it makes her seem far better known than I'd have thought she had any right to be. I can't even be arsed to Google it but is she actually a successful musician (by today's standards anyway, ie sells comparatively well, plays large venues/festivals etc.) or does she just get on TV a lot for some reason?

mothman

I do recall her (daytime) Glasto set a year or two back being quite well attended.

imitationleather

I think she's one of those singers who is surprisingly massive if you pay no attention to pop music anymore. Still putting my mind together after learning that Adele and Ed Sheeran are the biggest selling artists in history, or whatever they are. Probably not the biggest in history, but still bigger than two singers I've never knowingly heard a single song by should really be. I'm not an out-of-touch Judge who's never heard of The Beatles. I'm a cool young guy. I love Crowded House!

I dunno if that ad is representative of Paloma Faith's voice, but in it she doesn't sound like a competent singer - which is surely the minimum requirement for someone in her position.

DrGreggles

Quote from: jobotic on March 30, 2018, 10:43:43 PM
Back to the present day, hearing Paloma Faith foghorning out a perfectly pleasant Mama Cass song every fifteen minutes is pissing me right off is delightfully quirky.

Oh, is that who it is.
I did wonder who I'd been calling a cunt for the past few days.

DrGreggles

There's a lot of stuff being advertised on TV today that might make loads of people think "Oh, I need some of that".
And then think "Oh, all the fucking shops are shut."

asids

Quote from: icehaven on March 31, 2018, 11:28:56 AM
Paloma Faith's media presence consistently surprises me as it makes her seem far better known than I'd have thought she had any right to be. I can't even be arsed to Google it but is she actually a successful musician (by today's standards anyway, ie sells comparatively well, plays large venues/festivals etc.) or does she just get on TV a lot for some reason?

She had a number 1 album last year, so yes, she is "big" in that sense although she's not a singles chart topper in the same way as your Ed Sheerans. It helps that she's made sure to get herself on telly as much as possible through The Voice and so on so that her name's always out there. She's well known but I don't how many people are actively fans of her, she's just sort of there.

DrGreggles

That new Go Compare advert then.
Is the bloke supposed to be that Bo Selecta cunt?


Phil_A

Gah, now there's some George Ezra-voiced twunt fucking up Daniel Johnston's True Love Will Find You In The End. Nothing is sacred.

royce coolidge

Lloyds Bank.magical empathetic black horses here to make it all better on a beach,over a shit cover of "you're not alone".
I thought they were a bunch of money grubbing cunts who make the world a worse place,rather than a source of hope and support,but those kind horses !

Bronzy

Quote from: royce coolidge on April 08, 2018, 08:23:06 PM
Lloyds Bank.magical empathetic black horses here to make it all better on a beach,over a shit cover of "you're not alone".
I thought they were a bunch of money grubbing cunts who make the world a worse place,rather than a source of hope and support,but those kind horses !

Hi Noel

mothman

Yeah, what is going on there? The first one (with breathy girly Praise You cover music) made a sort of thematic sense: your bank (personified by a black horse) will be there for you when you need it (yeah, right). But now what do we have? Children being roused from their beds and force-marched to an isolated beach where lots of horses will appear magically and pick you (or not? Were there enough horses to go round? Do some children not get accepted?) for... what? A lifetime of banking services? Do all the horses represent Lloyd's, or are more than one bank available and it's a lottery which one you get?

I got a £5 Our Price voucher when I opened my first proper bank account as a teenager. Not sure if that's better or worse.

Dex Sawash

Hardee's; tastes like America

https://youtu.be/z4r79mfFN9s

Would be brilliant if it was a joke

Natnar

That ad for insurance that is completely silent always makes me think my TV is playing up. Coundn't they be arsed to do a soundtrack for it?