Wood/Trees/Dead Dogs

I’ve been out of the country for a while, but now that I’m back I note that in my absence the square root of fuck-all has happened in the world of advertising.

The only real ‘story’ I can find seems to be something to do with a department store showing some sort of snuff video of a kid killing a dog (check the comments):

Very weak joking aside, this is another interesting example of many intelligent people crossing the hell out of the Ts, dotting the fuck out of the Is and still not noticing the explosion of diahorrea on the duvet cover.

Odd, isn’t it?

I’m not saying for a moment that I’m surprised the agency and client let it through (I’m fairly certain that I wouldn’t have noticed it – I don’t like dogs very much, so if one freezes to death in a kennel, well, shit happens), but it amazes me the number of checks and balances you can put an ad through and yet still miss something the general public finds both obvious and really rather offensive.

I’ll bet many, many discussions were had about the United Nations make up of the cast, the age of the kids, how fat the office worker should be, the type of varnish used on the wooden stairs, the number of raindrops on the windscreen etc…

I bet they even sent at least a dozen emails back and forth about the specific breed of canine to be left in the snow to die.

But the doggycide scene stayed in.

Ah well.

We’re all human, even when we’re inhuman.

PS: have you read the legal that says ‘Toys featured range from £10 to £199’? Apparently someone thought that a vague approximation of the costs of some of the goods in the ad had to be specified in type along the bottom of the screen. Why? Do Vodaphone ads say ‘Calls featured range from £1.23 to 16.33’? Should McDonalds ads say ‘Comestibles featured range from 69p to £2.17? No. That would be fucking insane, but lets give a ballpark for the toys in case the viewing public can’t go to the shop and read the price tags.