In Response to Robert Bellavance

I am sorry to hear that those two people at WalMart were not willing to pay the extra fifty cents for their ice cream. It really annoys me when people complain about having to expend a tiny amount of energy more to afford a luxury that they don't need and completely ignore how lucky they are just to have the quality of life that they do. A lot of people around the world aren't even going to eat today, but they complain about ice cream. Give me a break.

And to say that the government doesn't spend enough money on us is ridiculous. They spend too much, hence the enormous deficit that is being increased every year. I can tell those people were very ignorant. Anyways, onto the question.

My answer is that it is not really where the company puts its money to use that influences my decision to buy from them. If they are donating to help suffering people overseas, I think that's great. If they are giving back to the community, I that's great too. In short, I prefer to buy from companies who are putting their money to work, not just into their paychecks.

Shiny Suds Commercial

I wouldn't call this commercial an example of socially irresponsible advertising. I think the words distasteful and inappropriate are more accurate descriptors. I think the firm producing this commercial was walking a thin line when deciding to use sensitive content to get its point across.

Some people have complained that the commercial is insensitive to victims of sexual assault, which it is, but I did not feel that that was the intent of the commercial. I believe that they made a mistake when they chose to use distasteful content as it will upset some people. This commercial did not bother some people, but it did bother some and had some sort of negative impact on the company's image.

That brings up my main point. This was not a socially irresponsible form of advertising, it was a dumb one. Not only did it offend some people, but it made the company look insensitive. Why would they choose to spend money on a commercial of a polarizing nature that could possibly put them in any kind of negative light? In today's world, information spreads fast and you are marketing to a much larger amount of people than you would have been years ago. This means that there are many different types of people who are watching this which in turn then means it is more likely your commercial will be misinterpreted/taken offense to. Now, obviously you can't make everyone happy, but with sensitive content like the one in "Shiny Suds", it seems like they weren't even trying to minimize how many people's toes they stepped on.

And again, this commercial isn't the end of the world or super-intolerable, it was just distasteful and not a good move in terms of advertising. In my opinion, there are just better ways to sell your product.

Do you remember any other advertisements that were received negatively? Was it a big deal or blown out of proportion in your opinion?