25 mad complaints to the ad standards board
There’s an amusing weekly feature in the UK gossip email Holy Moly called Duty Log Mental.
It covers complaints to TV networks about their programmes from less balanced members of society.
This week I’ve been catching up on Ad Standards Board rulings. Reading the complaints, I can’t help but think of Duty Log Mental.
I’ve dipped into rulings from just the last couple of months to give you a sense of what the ASB has to cope with. It seems that the price of self-regulation is indeed having to deal with the public at its most unbalanced. When you read them, it may not surprise you to note that all of the complaints below were dismissed.
Clearly some people have WAY too much time on their hands. I love the Foxten IQ complaint :
“The dance alone without any comment is not the dance of any innocent child.”
Quick ASB call an exorcist for the devil dancing child
The bit that made me WTF the most was “obviously targeted at children by the use of animation” with regard to the transperth ad.
Most of Pixar’s movies have plot elements aimed directly at adults, and they are NOT just kid’s movies.
A lot of Walt Disney’s early work was aimed directly at adults and not really suitable for children.
The overwhelming majority of Japan’s animation industry today is aimed at adults, particularly young adults with high disposable incomes.
In fact, the evidence is substantially to the contrary: the majority of animation produced is not done so for children.
Please note it is “Alfa Romeo” not “Alpha Romeo”. (I know this error may be from the source of this information and not mumbrella per se).
A fun article!
Thanks, Matt – amended (my fault).
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
I’ve had to deal with complaints from crazy people through the ASB twice. Not a lot of fun (probably around 1/2 a day to respond to each one) and although they’re ok to deal with, they seem to take even the most baseless complaints very seriously (the ASB).
It costs the complainant very little effort to lodge the complaint – you could easily increase the quality of the complaints by raising the barrier of entry a little (maybe postal mail instead of of a simple web form etc).
@ J
As opposed to commenting on blogs?
@Soccerooligans hehe but really some people just need to get a life, I’m happy to whinge and complain where no one really cares, but to take it to the ads standards and then the company actually have to reply seems to me they should be dismissed as ridiclous! Waste of people and taxpayers time and money
That cleaning ad made me laugh!
Hilarious!
Some people just need a Bex and a good lie down!
this is hilarious!
I thought the Earth one was excellent, really pulled at the emotions and guilt and was done beautifully. If it made them feel sick, well it did the job in my opinion! And yes, definitely these people have got some serious issues of their own!
i want to be friends with the person who made the sunbeam complaint.
i want someone around who can point out the balloon like qualities in electrical appliances, especially when i hold the power cables.
a grade stuff.
I hear your pain. The time taken to respond to the ASB complaints process is far too long. The biggest problem with ASB process is that one person can complain anonymously about an ad campaign and the ASB can rule in their favour and the advertiser has to pull or modify their campaign. The anonymous complainant could quite easily be a competitor or a lobbyist or a nutter (SEE ABOVE) The ASB needs to change that element of the process and make the process transparent for all concerned. It would re-duce thier workload. At the moment it protects people, companies or organisations who wish to abuse the system. If people want to complain stand up and own the complaint if it means that much to you! If you don’t or can’t own the complaint then the ASB can take the anonymous complaint for noting and pass it on to the advertiser for their information. if the advertiser wants to re-act they can on their terms.
Anon
Just wait until people get to submit complaints about websites for inclusion on Australia’s blacklist… 😉
Anon 4.22,
Good point on competitors. In some of the complaints I looked at (not featured here) the complaint was full of industry jargon that made it feel very much like it was a trouble-making competitor. You’ve average punter doesn’t use the word “super” for caption, for instance.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Oh I can completely understand how the guy who saw the “graphic image” felt!
I mean, if I’m unlucky enough to get stuck behind him on the freeway and he gets woozy again but “can’t find a place to safely pull over”, how is he going to feel when I run him over and he LOOKS like the guy on the ad?
*sigh*
Idiots.
Mercury ad has theme tune from Fawlty Towers.
Or is that Flowery Twats?
Reminds me of someone who rang a radio station at 1am on a Sunday night t(actually Monday morning) to complain that Cocoa Pops didn’t contain as much chocolate as they used to. Seriously – that not only keeps you up but prompts you to ring a radio station?
Actually… they were just taking the p*ss.
RE: M&Ms
Didn’t think the posted ad above was approaching advertising of bullying, but have seen other examples of this campaign that do.
Some point of sale merch for this product has “Red”, putting a kick me sign on the back of “Yellow” – an old bully favorite – without any “humorous context”. I think this is fairly poor from a product using characters clearly aimed at kids.
I await the next series of “Red” and “Yellow” ads where Red pours accelerant on Yellow and sets him alight in a humorous hazing ritual.
You know… that Philadelphia Cream Cheese ad is kinda controversial. It’s lighthearted and everything but just imagine if the roles were reversed… a forty-something male perving on twenty-something chefs, then finally patting one’s bum. The scream would be very loud indeed.
Lady with comments about the EarthChoice commercial clearly needs to go back to school for some grammar lessons.
Number 24: “I suffer from a common medical condition that means I suffer adverse effects from viewing graphic images incuding mild weakness sweating and nausea. However when combined with circumstances such as fatigue heat or cold I have experienced fainting and in fact the Red Cross refuse to allow me to give blood. This is not in normal circumstances a problem but the graphic images do trigger these eposides.
I had one unfortunate event where I was riding my motorcycle and viewed one of these billboards of a motorcycle rider with a bloodied leg. It triggered an episode of dizziness and I desperately felt the urge to lie down. However the peak hour traffic on the eastern freeway was very heavy and I could not find a place to safely pull over. I had no choice to keep riding and after some minutes the episode passed”
Simply amazing! Can I get a job on the complaints board? I want to get paid to read this sh1t!!! 😉
Dear nauseous fainting guy on a motorbike,
I am offended that you are on the road when you have a condition that puts yourself and others at risk. Can I complain to the RTA about you? I guess they gave you a license because it’s still legally an acceptable risk so we’ll all just have to suck it up and deal with it.
Yours sincerely,
spider
@spider Nice.
I am crying!! The motorcycle and all the comments about the motorcycle… hilarious. Tim can you please do this weekly?
All I see in this is that the ASB knocks back every complaint. Are there any complaints that are not trivial or vexatious? If there are, then what are they and does the ASB ever do any thing about them? What does it do? (Other than determine it was all in fun).
Was thinking the same thing as you spider. I mean seriously, he has a condition and is riding a motorbike which requires constant balance… yet his condition voids that ability.
Bet he lied to the RTA ’bout that one.
As a long time reader of the Holy Moly Mailout (full disclosure: I also work with ’em for a bit!), I can see why some of the peeps here would love to see an Aussie Duty Mental Log started up by Tim and his crew. In the meantime, if you want to enjoy a weekly laugh at UK weirdos making crackpot complaints about Eastenders, sign up the the Holy Moly weekly mailout here: http://communicatoremail.com/I.....dn-nhA6r9c or check out the site http://www.holymoly.com
Should anyone at the networks want to start slipping me their local version of Duty Log Mental, I’ll be happy to give them the airtime they deserve…
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Having worked as a television publicist for a number of years overseas, the comlaints from the public never failed to amuse. A self-proclaimed racist once called to complain that the network’s soap opera painted racists in a bad light and he felt personally insulted by this!
You can but laugh..
It makes me want to put in a lunatic complaint to the ASB just to see how they write it up.
Hi Tim and friends. I suggest you read your comments again and ask yourself why it gives you pleasure to laugh at and sometimes hate on people with mental illness. Ask yourself whether mental illness has touched your life. Go on, take put down your ipad or your cock and think about it
@ Damien,
Can’t help but agree, if it was an older gentlemen patting the bottom of and embracing two scantily clad females, the uproar would be deafening.
This article was fantastic.
Mikhael,
But the complaints ARE mad…
What scares me is that these people are allowed to vote.
To the determinator/ASB and anyone involved in supporting the australian philadelphia commercial (number 14)
I must tell you… I certainly don’t consider myself as a so called ‘less balanced member of society’ and I’m not saying you have branded me one either. If the tables were turned in that commercial (2 attractive women and one male) and the same actions were incorporated towards the 2 women… you and I know there would be a HUGE uproar and would most likely end up in court as promoting a form of sexual assualt. How often do you see two men cooking in mine and YOUR kitchen? Get real! The commercial clearly sexaulizes men in the kitchen and it doesn’t take a so called ‘less balanced member of society’ to see that. What does cream cheese have to do with ‘being naughty’ with 2 men in the kitchen anyway?? Please… dont make me sick… take it to the bedroom… or if you really need to… go and sift through your naughty collection of movies… im sure they will keep you entertained longer than a 20 second commercial. Oh… but I forgot one thing…… sex sells!! $$$ !!
Young children watch this commercial amongst others of similar nature incase you haven’t noticed and some children love cream cheese. If you consider this commercial as humor then you are no better than the so called ‘less balanced members of society’. I understand humor very well thankyou… and I can understand the commercial will comfort the perverted quite happily. Determine what you like my friend. You seem to have no sence of feeling and seem quite out of touch with true society. Stop supporting sexualized commercials as most of the time have nothing to do with what they are trying to sell…. and have some self dignity… if you even know what that means.
Have you ever heard of “humor is serious’?
If not then i suggest you look into it.
(My comments are a reflection of a significant part of society and in no way meant to harm anyone)