Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Britney Spears - Doesn't Exist

Ad Bites the Dust after 7 complaints.

Sky TV (cable in NZ) billboard was selling its services using a photo of Britney Spears climbing out of a car, camera angle looking up her skirt revealing she was not wearing underwear. Panties were drawn over her crotch. Slogan on ad: “Something Everyone Wants To See”

7 Complaints were filed and were upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority. Lawyers for Sky and the Ad agency, DDB New Zealand’s defense was that it appeared the complainants were unaware Spears had been pictured last year getting out of a car without underwear because the idea for the ad was that people wouldn’t want to see Britney’s bits(Kiwi slang for any thing) but there was something they would want to see on Sky.

Huh? In other words, the defense was based on the premise that it’s okay to degrade women if you are making fun of them. I don’t think 7 complaints would have made any difference in New York. Sometimes it is nice to live in a small community. However, this ad would never appear in New York either. For a small country there are a large amount of ads here which depict women in an extremely degrading way, on billboards and on TV.

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