After reading this article I was confused about why it was considered crude and offensive. I would think a company would do some research before placing an advertisement that could possible offend others. Although, we see this attack almost every day with politicians amongst themselves, it is considered politically incorrect.
Clicking on several links I finally found the answer to my question, why is this offensive? Seems this company put up a billboard, which, if you can’t make it out, reads: Christmas Quality, Hanukkah Pricing. Although the company that placed the ad was only looking for it to be perceived as funny, it has offended the Jewish community.
While the Jewdars all found it pretty amusing, the ADL had this to say: “In a crude and offensive way of trying to make a point that their vodka is high quality and inexpensive, the billboards evoke a Jewish holiday to imply something that is cheap and of lesser value when compared to the higher value of a Christian holiday. Particularly with the long history of anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jews and money, with the age-old notion that Jews are cheap, to use the Jewish holiday in dealing with issues of money is clearly insensitive and inappropriate.”
The ADL is an Anti-Defamation League for Jewish people. http://www.adl.org/PresRele/ASUS_12/6176_12.htm
http://www.talentzoo.com/beyond-madison-ave/blog_news.php?articleID=12343
I actually saw this on the Stephen Colbert show, and thought it was initially part of a skit-it was not. The advertisers must have had a specific demographic in mind when creating this advertisement, but a billboard seems to be an inappropriate place to put such a message. They should have been more contentious of the medium used with this ad, even when it was intended for humor. I'm not sure what other fallout has occurred from this placement, but hopefully the company's future promotions will be more sensitive. The success of their business will likely hinge on their ability to bounce back from this incident and to use extreme caution in their next endeavor.
ReplyDeleteI really don't like attacking ads. If anything they raise doubt in my mind of the person attacking the other. Political ads are the worst offender of these types of ads. I find it irresponsible that in attack ads, things are so often taken out of context and distorted from the reality of a situation.
ReplyDeleteWhenever you compare two different religions or demographics, you are assured of rubbing against the grain. However, using a stereotype to emphasis a product is cheap to me goes a little far. Sure the stereotype is something that a lot of people can comprehend, but is it worth it to completely isolate yourself from a demographic just to create a humor appeal? Also the fact that it's a billboard and not a viral ad means that this offensive ad won't get passed around to generate publicity like Groupon's "Tibet" ad in last years Super Bowl. To me this just doesn't make sense.
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