Banned commercial

March 19, 2003 10:29 AM

TV Censorship? This advert has just been banned from British TV after a record number of complaints were made about it.

What do you think of it?
posted by essexjan (29 comments total)

I think that there's a bunch of people out there with way too little to worry about.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 10:33 AM on March 19, 2003

Kewl add. Stupid people. Stupid people with delusions of adequate sense of humour.
posted by freakystyley at 10:35 AM on March 19, 2003

"Censorship" is kind of a loaded word to be throwing around, isn't it? The ad is more than a little gross, and it was apparently freaking some children out. Seems like a good reason to me.
posted by GeekAnimator at 10:35 AM on March 19, 2003

Quick, somebody call the Mothers Against Regurgitating Pets.
posted by freakystyley at 10:35 AM on March 19, 2003

Why do ads get banned outright? Couldn't they just air the ad during adult-friendly hours? Or are today's adults just way too childish?
posted by freakystyley at 10:37 AM on March 19, 2003

So does "make shorter link" actually mean "take longer to get where you're going?"
posted by eyeballkid at 10:46 AM on March 19, 2003

If you read the links, you'd see that they are playing the ad after 9pm.
posted by password at 10:46 AM on March 19, 2003

Freaking some children out? What's the matter with kids today? Isn't it still mandatory to have seen the movie Aliens before age 8? I know it was when I was a youngin'
posted by Space Coyote at 10:48 AM on March 19, 2003

I saw it during Coronation Street. Can't say I was shocked or sickened by it, in fact I was quite impressed by it's "realism". But then, I'm not a child, and as we all know somebody has to think of the children.
posted by squealy at 10:49 AM on March 19, 2003

Yeah, password, I just spotted that. My bad!
posted by freakystyley at 10:49 AM on March 19, 2003

Couldn't they just air the ad during adult-friendly hours?

That's what the second article seems to be saying has happened. Is that right Essexjan?


Anyway, while I thought the ad was quite unpeasant, I was more annoyed by the fact that this is just one of about 4 new or newish products on the UK market in the last month, all being heavily promoted and all seemingly aimed at making people paranoid that they have bad breath.
posted by biffa at 10:49 AM on March 19, 2003

I like tinyurl.com more- no visit to another page before you get to the desired destination.

This ad is not a big deal at all. I don't understand the furor.

Also, adding sugar to a mouth with halitosis only covers the problem- doesn't provide a cure. Most of these breathmints are mainly sugar.
posted by gen at 10:51 AM on March 19, 2003

I may be completely wrong about this, but...

I think it's a rip-off of an episode of the comic strip Go Die. Unfortunately, the particular strip I'm thinking of is not archived. The main character, Ron, is lying on the floor, and his dog Spoon slowly crawls out of his mouth. The text in the final panel is:

Ron: "I'm never drinking tequila again."
Spoon: "You were way out of line last night!"

Can anyone back me up?
posted by starvingartist at 10:52 AM on March 19, 2003

i was not particularly upset by the advert, but it's getting towards the bounds of what is currently acceptable for adverts, and it is very convincing. i won't miss it, anyway, it's only a freaking advert. good on those people, that they won't let the demented ad creatives make them want to vomit! remember that ads are devious and insidious propaganda designed to weasel their way into your consciousness, interspersed between programs so that you will probably see them even if you don't want to. why bother defending them? the fewer there are the better.
posted by mokey at 10:55 AM on March 19, 2003

What, Wrigley's still exists? Oh.

I guess the ad did its job, then.
posted by soyjoy at 10:58 AM on March 19, 2003

OK, so how is it that apparently a peace march of 750,000+ people somehow doesn't actually (according to our leaders) represent the will of the people, but a few humourless gits out of an audience of potentially millions is representative enough to get an ad yanked?
posted by kaemaril at 11:02 AM on March 19, 2003

The ad is whacked!!! I loved it!
posted by scalz at 11:26 AM on March 19, 2003

It might be received better in Korea.
posted by Frank Grimes at 11:42 AM on March 19, 2003

"but a few humourless gits out of an audience of potentially millions is representative enough to get an ad yanked?"

We should get these 580 peeps to call Number 10.
posted by armoured-ant at 11:57 AM on March 19, 2003

kaemaril, Freakin' good point.
posted by freakystyley at 11:59 AM on March 19, 2003

point of order: essexjan, makeashorterlink or tinyurl are good for use in newsgroups or e-mail, where some may need to cut and paste the text, and clients may cut off parts; but here at metafilter people prefer to know where they are going, especially those surfing from work -- and the URL itself will certainly fit within the HTML link. Not recommended.
posted by dhartung at 12:05 PM on March 19, 2003

My apologies for using makeashorterlink, I wasn't aware that it was against the netiquette on here.


Wrigley's have decided to withdraw the advert, instead of making sure it is shown later in the evening.
posted by essexjan at 12:34 PM on March 19, 2003

Frank Grimes: Lol

But seriously, that add was helarious :P
posted by delmoi at 1:01 PM on March 19, 2003

Well, to be one of few dissenters, I thought the ad was disgusting, mostly for the pile of vomit on the couch and the hurling sounds. I can only imagine if I was eating and this commercial came on - I would be so royally pissed off because it would completely ruin my dinner.
posted by internal at 1:41 PM on March 19, 2003

It's not a pile of vomit on the couch, it's the remains of a doner kebab.
posted by essexjan at 2:01 PM on March 19, 2003

nothing wrong with it.
posted by jjb at 2:58 PM on March 19, 2003

You know, I think the ad is fine.

It does, however, remind me of my father, who would say some of the most outrageous things at exactly the wrong time. Once during the summer when I was around 11 or so, my Dad took all of us camping. To make it fun for the kids, he decided to let us invite our girlfriends/boyfriends....but onlyif we slept in separate tents...
Anyway, we are all gathered around the campfire in the morning, and my Dad comes rambling out of his tent, scratching his rear and yawning. He sits down between my girlfriend and I and states, "Did anyone see that bear last night?"

We all get freaked out, and my girlfriend started crying for some reason, and I finally said, "what bear? There are no bears around here...."
And Dad says, "You know, the one that shit in my mouth last night. My breath smells terrible."

My girlfriend went home, told her parents, and they told her she wasn't allowed to date me anymore.
posted by bradth27 at 3:39 PM on March 19, 2003

Yeah, you know, a doner kebab[flash].
posted by wobh at 6:02 PM on March 19, 2003

The ad disturbed me, but not enough to call and complain.

it just freaks me out. A lot.
posted by Katemonkey at 1:18 AM on March 20, 2003