Instead of being obsessed by sex like every other person I’ve met. Which, in turn, leads me to wonder exactly what 86 people found so offensive about an ecigarette advert and what impact they thought it would have?
“You know that feeling you get, when something’s great? You can touch it, hold it, even see it. Well, now you can taste it.”
As covered in Campaign marketing magazine this week, the lady speaking is being overtly sexual in the advert – rubbing her thigh and mouthing big O’s but then Sid and Bernie took Joan and Anthea to see a film about naturists. There was more nudity in that film than this advert.
To that end the Advertising Standards Authority agree as complaints that the ad was offensive were not upheld. The 86 complaints claimed: “they believed it was overtly sexual and irresponsibly sexualised e-cigarette use.”
Freud the psychoanalyst, were he still alive, would explain that the cigarette (electronic or otherwise) acts as both a penile and nipple substitute, leading to one of the reasons it has a relaxing effect on the mind of the user. No surprise that an advertisement treats them as such then.
As a result the advert has been cleared for airing but only after the 9pm watershed because, as we know, all children are in bed by that time.
The thing is, children are being bombarded with adult themes all of the time. The reason it’s OK is that children simply don’t understand the meaning. Wallace & Grommit’s Were-Rabbit contains a scene in which Wallace is wearing a box labelled “May Contain Nuts”. In the film Cars the lemon ones have a party a lemon party. In all probability, many adults would need to use Google in order to ascertain quite how ‘adult’ that hidden joke is. Pixar have a long history of sneaking in adult content to their productions.
Now, some would argue that the advert objectifies women and is offensive for that reason alone. Not the boss of a rival ecigarette company, he refers to this sexualised campaign as having an “attention-seeking nature”. Blu chief executive Jacob Fuller said: “Some of our competitors have made ads which hurt the industry due to their bad taste.”
What is an advertising campaign if it isn’t seeking attention? Isn’t that the sole purpose of advertising? Mr. Fuller wouldn’t be mad because his agency didn’t think of it first, would he?
What do you think? Does this do vaping a disservice or is it just frippery?
The advert is here for reference purposes only. Please only view it in a darkened room, on your own, after the children are asleep.
