Advertisers have been getting off the hook. But for how long more? They are a powerful group, but if they are reading the signs, they should not kid themselves that they are untouchable. Even Oprah is under the microscope. Some marketers have begun to see the light. The Virgin group, for instance, notorious for controversial advertising (the Bennetton shortcut to fame), has changed its tack in the recent campaign for Virgin Mobile.
If you might recall, Virgin Mobile used what it called the "nominal gay reference" about someone arrested thrown into prison. The ad featured a burly prisoner asking another to pick up a bar of soap on the floor. In the late nineties, Virgin Cola dared the FTC with the same-sex kiss commercial. Abercrombie & Fitch was forced to discontinue its Christmas catalog after parent groups protested its use of sex to sell to young people.
But Janet and Madonna changed that for everyone –including the one-time untouchable, Howard Stern. You can tell Advertising Age is all upset about this. In the April 5 issue, it declares that:
“If the mainstream media opts to placate a moral majority, then younger and/or more sophisticated consumers will make their own choices –for cable, satellite, radio, the Internet, pay-per-view.”
The article is full of the standard ‘let the market decide’ bias. Sure, I like it when the market decides what’s viable or not, but the insinuation in the article is that the government is bringing the slam-the-evildoers act to the marketing and advertising world. It's full of references to ‘the bid to cleanse content,’ ‘cultural overlords,’ and the ‘moral majority’ (as oppsed to the “more sophisticated consumers.”)
And get this: the article on the front page is carried over to page 34, with the lead in titled “Puritanism.” I bet you this is a hack job. It could very well be a ‘white paper’ for an advertising lobby against the FTC. They frame the debate as the “traditionalists” vs the “nonconformists,” “the moral majority vs the edgy elite.”
Great copy, Ad Age. Edgy elite! That’s a new one.
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