I sit here in China, where supposedly the police is glued with one ear to my door and has directional microphones beamed at my windows. Looking and listening to America, I can only shake my head. No authorities needed. We are self-policing. Where did the great times of the 70’s and 80’s go? Where is true freedom of speech hiding? Pretty much nothing can be said and done anymore for fear of insulting someone, somewhere, somehow. The other day, we showed two car ads, made for network TV, and all hell broke loose. “Too racy!” “I will get in trouble with HR when I watch TTAC during work!” “Sexist!”
According to my mother, bless her heart, I fancied boobies hours after I was born. Somehow, I never gave up the affliction. I’m coming out of the closet: Yes, I like sex. Having lived and worked in the movie and advertising scene for most of my life, I am used to a, what do they call it now, “diverse lifestyle.” Most of my art directors were gay. The head of our company went both ways, he had twice the fun. I’m as straight as can be, but my wife and I are regular visitors at the Folsom Street Fair in Berlin. Shame on you if you know what it is.
So when I did read the kvetching about two harmless commercials, I said to myself: “Fornicate it.” And I called for entries for the Shameless Sexual Exploitation Weekend: (Possibly) NSFW. Here are the results.
Twotone, my man, had three great entries. First, the classic “Not in this weather” Mercedes commercial. Knowing Mercedes, this took guts. I remember the times when they thought any advertising at all was despicable:
Then a Mini Cooper commercial that reminded me of my youth, in more ways than one:
And finally a Hyundai commercial, that shamelessly exploited cougars AND gays – before cougars even were on the radar:
psarhjinian redefined “racy” with this one:
With the next entry, JJ dispelled the myth that women don’t like to look at pictures of pretty women. (Who do you think the lingerie ads are targeted at anyway? At cross dressers?)
He followed it up with one my mother would have liked:
With this fine piece of print, dada showed that BMW can – on occasion – get beyond the stick-in-the-muds they usually are when it comes to advertising:
Speaking of Cougars, npbheights had some nice Mercury Cougar ads. Already a tad tame in comparison.
Did I say the guys at BMW usually are stick-in-the-muds? Not according to this commercial, brought to us by Kevin Jaeger:
iNeon wanted to see “some dick,” but sadly, nobody provided any. Probably for a lack of material. (There will be some at the end.)
Stingray delivered a fireworks of videos, of which I picked this one. I’m with Helga on that one: “I lovve leaser.” Especially on women who flash. I’d have the same reaction as that Porsche.
And who gets the prize for the most politically incorrect pick?
Zombo! Fellatio AND vertically challenged people! That took guts.
The promised one for iNeon. Not a car commercial, but in a car. (By Willman):
I’m glad that sex is alive and well. If it wouldn’t be, it would get pretty lonely pretty soon, don’t you agree?
Well between that Cougar commercial and Jill Wagoner we know it wasn’t bad advertising that killed Mercury.
It is pitiful nowadays. I’ve found that the easiest way to get a modern 20-something’s (male or female) jaw on the ground is to give them a rundown of what a weekend was like for me when I was their age. For the record, we’re talking 1972-77. Political correctness was just starting to lift it’s ugly head, and people were having too much fun to bother getting offended. They’d do something radical back then: Ignore the offending jerk.
Of course, it didn’t hurt that the guy/chick you picked up at the club Friday night wasn’t packing anything that could kill you. Mention of that REALLY gets the 20-something’s eyes opening wide.
True. I was a great time between the invention of the Pill and AIDS. I’m glad I was 20 then.
Yeah, yeah, everything was better when you were twentysomething. Note that it doesn’t matter when this actually was: everyone’s twentysomethinghood was always better than those before and after.
Did you see the Volvo one?
I knew the Porsche one was going to qualify.
Bertel…Here’s the problem.
First, we are actually more tolerant these days than we were in the “good ‘ol days”.
I think you need to read about the trials and tribulations of those cowering beneath the Cotton Mather podium.
It’s NOT that sex (and the exploitation of) is so bad, it’s the function of sex itself that needs understanding and the twisted lesson advertising is creating.
You want to be lectured next on the poor image some kids have of themselves today?
Look at the sweet but under weight and unathletic actors used in the ads.
Then YOU try to explain to YOUR daughter one day why she should stop hating herself.
We have to produce so nature made us men blindly guided by the One Eye.
As Robin Williams once said…”A man has a brain and a penis, but only enough blood to operate one at a time.” When one is working, the other is not.
Once the producing is over, your wasted energy in natures big plan.
Get out of the way.
The “beautiful” image pushed upon the society as a whole that is disturbing.
Sex used in advertising never promotes “normal” looking people.
Only the image of what we should look like, IF we were good looking.
I think this is what others have been trying to get through to you about.
They were asking you to tread carefully.
Now I know this is seemingly difficult for you and myself to not only realize, but also to control.
THAT is what growing up is about.
It is also why I drink heavily.
Life itself is ugly. It feeds on death.
Realizing the horrific drives and make up of what it is to be human is the first step. The BIG step is to begin to control and manage it.
I am not comfortable celebrating much of it.
This is so very difficult, perhaps impossible for most to grasp. You see, the drive is powerful and the result of millions of years.
It feels…um, natural.
It’s human nature to laugh at itself. A sort of gallows humor. But then we have to rationalize our deeds and misbehavior in order to sleep at night.
And the lust for the young and beautiful is one of the rationalizations we have become very good at.
And the fact that lots of this feel-good rationalization is done, it is still ugly human nature at its best.
Think of the traditional hanging of the deer head on the wall in the office.
OK. OK. So we eat animals. But making trophies of the butchered is still weird.
To make this long (and in the end wasted) reprimand short, grab a hold of yourself, so to speak, and try to control the inner demons embedded in your DNA.
That is what civilization is really about.
Have a nice Sunday…we begin all over again Monday.
Cheers.
I recommend you to turn on BBC Entertainment and see How to look good naked. Then, show it to your wife and daughter. I’m sure it will help them with their self-esteem problems in 2 ways:
1) There’s someone else that is in a worse situation.
2) There’s a way to accept their body AND look good without surgery/gym etc…
Nothing like an earnest lesson in DoubleThink to wrap up the weekend.
In my opinion, it all went to hell when we let women wear shoes.
OK, one more — the Honda Civic ad for the S. American market.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7ae30ee854
Twotone
<i>I sit here in China, where supposedly the police is glued with one ear to my door and has directional microphones beamed at my windows. Looking and listening to America, I can only shake my head. No authorities needed.</i>
Ahh yes. China. The land of freedom. Who could forget that wonderful display of government tolerance in Tianamen Square? The lovely conditions in Tibet? The gracious treatment of the Dali Lama? The thousands of political prisoners?
Yup. All is well and good.
Unless you can read.
And yeah, I know the Folsom Street Fair. I resided in SF for 4 years so it was a ‘must attend’ event.
Glad to hear it has a tribute appearance in The Fatherland.
I am aware I am merely a carrier and disseminator of RNA/DNA and once I have fulfilled that role I should crawl off and cease existing to allow the next carrier to repeat the performance.
Free up the shanty for the next occupant and leave room at the dumpster for the next herd member grazing for sustenance.
I am still unable to comprehend the hows and whys and ins and outs of HOW that curvy helix “instructs” various chemicals to utilize elements and various “building blocks” to construct a complete functioning self-replicating human body.
Currently listening to the Webcast of the Ron Ananian “Car Doctor” call-in show. Interesting, informative.
http://www.ronananian.com/
Aired by various Webcasting capable radio stations at various times and days.
I listen to the Sunday AM Webcast via http://www.wntk.com/index.php
Webcasting is cool, akin to a ’69 2-door Dodge Dart or a 70-72 Plymouth Duster
or a bunch of other make/model cars but I trend towards Moparness but reality shouts out to ensure my conveyance allows one to dwell within its confines while maintaining a low profile to fend off the jack-booted-thugs defending the status quo demanded and enforced by the ruling elites.
However, I still recognize the tie-side bikini as one of the great inventions of humanity and to be rejoiced over and its use to be encouraged whenever possible.
Film at eleven.
If we are voting, I think the blond (in the front seat) in the MINI commercial is the hottest.