Shock Social advertising

[Target]

-Attention: Below there are some shocking Pics that could hurt you-

A definition of social advertising could be "applying marketing and advertising principles to promote health and social issues and bringing about positive behavior change."
The objective of a social Advertising is to try to persuade people avoid a particular dangerous lifestyle, show some social problems and other.

One of the laws of advertisement is: more the advertise is "Special" --> more people will remember it --> more products sold.

That's why this kind of advertisements are very often Shocking, so people can say "look what happened to him/her! I don't want this to happens to me".

Time ago a famous Photographer, Oliviero Toscani, created an advertisement against Anorexia (see pic below), showing a anorexic top model naked. This advertise was banned after a week and removed from Cities. (2)

Another Advertise from him was about sexual harassment against women. The advertise shows 2 naked kids (a boy and a girl): under the boy the word "slaughter", under the girl the word "Victim". This appeared on a Women's magazine called "Donna Moderna". (1)

The last advertise I've saw (don't remember where it comes from) was about gay discrimination, showing a newborn with a bracelet on his wrist saying "homosexual", meaning that is not a illness but is something with you from your Birth. (3)

I think this kind of Advertisement are very useful Because the human mind remember better something that cause a shock; and if it is for a good cause why don't use it?

What are your thoughts?

[Peachy]

Our police / highway adimistration has done the same thing to knock some common sense into people. They've posted posters like the following one all along our Autobahn (highways):


The words above the vultures read: "Hello, speeding drivers, we're waiting"

There was another poster from the same series which showed a bunch of doctors and medical professionals going "We're ready".

Last year's poster series showed celebrities ridiculing the (predominantly) male speeding driver's penis size, like this one:

("Speeding drivers are this sexy").

I think this year's campaign just shows orbituaries including a happy family photo and the text "Ralph, Alex, Lea, Felix L. - too fast on the Autobahn".

Peachy

[Jade]

We've got "shock" picture on our cigarette packets and add campaigns. Unfortunately most people I know don't care about it because of the "Oh it wont happen too me" attitude. I do think its a good way to make a statement though

Off-topic: I thought the autobahn had an unlimited speed set for a few lanes? I'm going to assume I'm either misinformed or have something mixed up.

[Martin]

Only certain parts of the Autobahn.

We have some of those here too. Can't think of one right now though.

[crash632]

This reminds me of a commercial aired on public tv in my area as part of some Save the Earth campaign.

YouTube - Saving Gaia

The gore, although obviosuly fake, still caused quite a stir in the local press...

[Lukie]

First thing I thought of when I saw this thread: YouTube - prevent-it.ca

[daria7483]

I guess my reaction to the first one is the American coming out in me - here in the U.S., that kind of pic is illegal. So when I saw the first pic, my first reaction was "wow, they shouldn't have used naked little kids in an ad, that'd never be legal here" and my second reaction was "I hope I don't get in trouble somehow for viewing this."

So...although I confess I know very little about pedophilia, my feeling is that little kids should not be shown naked in ads (at least not front-end nudity) and if I were a parent I would never agree to have my child portrayed in such an adult. And I also have to confess that I don't quite get the ad...okay, you see "slaughter victim" under two little kids...is it trying to say that the two kids were eventually killed? Why do they have to be naked? What does this have to do with sexual harassment against women? Clearly I'm missing something here.

The U.S. does some "shock advertising" similar to the anorexia ad, only with drugs. I remember in my high school we had a poster with a nasty-looking woman smoking that said "if what happened on the inside happened on the outside, would you still smoke?" And then there were the "this is your brain on drugs!" Rachel Leigh Cooke ads in the 90s. There have been tons of TV ads in the past couple of years showing the various horrors that can happen if you smoke pot or cigarettes, but I don't know that I'd necessarily call it shock advertising. I'm also not sure how effective they are. I think most U.S. teens know already that drinking and driving can kill you and cigarettes can kill you, and smoking pot can make you space out and be negligent of whatever you were supposed to be doing...but until someone they know is directly affected by these things, some are just going to do it anyway.

I think the anorexia ad has the potential to be effective, though. In the U.S., there seems to be a standard for celebrities that's different from the one the rest of us are held to. More than half of the population is overweight or obese, but visit the IMDB message for Drew Barrymore, and I can just about guarantee you there will be a post somewhere fairly early with someone saying she's fat because she doesn't conform to the rail thin standards most celebrities have. In the past week, I've seen two examples like this in my real life...one was an acquaintance who balked at a doctor's recommendation that she should give her underweight daughter milkshakes with heavy cream because the kid was just not gaining weight even though she's heading into adolescence (this person recently lost 80 pounds and is worried her daughter will become fat) and the other was when a guy on this board said he was 6'1 and 140 lbs and wanted to bulk up and a couple of people responded questioning why he'd want to gain weight.

So, given that in the U.S. anorexia has the highest fatality rate of any mental illness, I think some education is in order to show people that yes, you can be too thin. If an ad like that helps, I'm all for it.

As for the last ad, I don't have a problem with that, but again, I think views about homosexuality are something already ingrained in us that are very hard to change through advertising. Those who believe homosexuality is a sinful lifestyle choice will continue clinging to their Bibles and grumbling about the liberal media trying to make sure we all go to Hell.

[Peachy]

Originally Posted by daria7483

I guess my reaction to the first one is the American coming out in me - here in the U.S., that kind of pic is illegal. So when I saw the first pic, my first reaction was "wow, they shouldn't have used naked little kids in an ad, that'd never be legal here" and my second reaction was "I hope I don't get in trouble somehow for viewing this."

I guess it has to be the American coming out in you - because nudity is not illegal. Pornography is, but that's defined as an erected penis, a close up shot of a vagina, or any display of naked people meant to arouse someone (i.e. grabbing your crotch Michael Jackson-like). Anything else is a fair game, and ironically, if a pedofile looked at the poster up close to "enjoy" the naked boy, the poster could still get the intended message across (do discrimination against gays, or whatever it was).

At least it was shock advertising for you...you had somewhat of a cultural shock

Peachy

[kite]

Originally Posted by daria7483

I guess my reaction to the first one is the American coming out in me - here in the U.S., that kind of pic is illegal. So when I saw the first pic, my first reaction was "wow, they shouldn't have used naked little kids in an ad, that'd never be legal here" and my second reaction was "I hope I don't get in trouble somehow for viewing this."

second that notion. here in americaland everything naked is wrong and immoral and will send your soul to hell not to mention that the fbi are now on their way.