9/11 Ad Controversy

[Ms Dollar]

Link to Article

'Tasteless' Ad Called a Mockery of 9/11Our Editors Pick the Best of What's Hot on the Web

AOL News
posted: 18 HOURS 49 MINUTES

(Sept. 2) -- Denunciations, denials and apologies are flying after an advertisement that evokes 9/11 quickly spread around the blogosphere.
AdFreak.com called attention to the purported World Wildlife Fund print ad that shows dozens of airliners taking aim at Manhattan. The copy reads: "The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11. The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it."

"It's enough to turn your stomach," wrote NBC New York's Hasani Gittens. The Weekly Standard's blog called it "shameful" and a mockery not only of those who died on Sept. 11 but victims of the 2004 tsunami as well.
The World Wildlife Fund responded by saying it didn't authorize the ad, which it blasted as "offensive and tasteless." The ad was done last December by the agency DDB Brazil to try to win the WWF's business in that country. The WWF said it "summarily rejected" the concept. DDB responded to the uproar with an apology -- saying the people who created the ad are "no longer with the agency."

Michelle Malkin thinks the denials "ring hollow." She charges that DDB has "a lengthy track record of being tied vile ads that their clients keep disavowing."

Here's the controversial ad.

[xxbckiexx]

[Ms Dollar]

Haha very funny. I just thought it was an interesting article...

[xxbckiexx]

Haha very funny. I just thought it was an interesting article...

[BKgen®]

Fucking communist assholes.

[Total_Blender]

Some things...

1.) This ad is from Brazil, where 9/11 doesn't resonate as powerfully/emotionally as it does here.

2.) It was thought up by some brainiac at an ad agency, not anyone involved with the WWF or any other environmentalism group.

3.) Michell Malkin is kinda dumb.

I really don't see the controversy behind this ad since they decided not to run it. Everyone hates it (even the WWF and environmentalists), the WWF didn't commission it or even ask DDF Brazil to do it, and the people at DDF Brazil who made it apparently lost their jobs. While it is disturbing etc all parties involved are trying to distance themselves from it. If they were supporting it I could see calling it a controversy.

If any of you knew how advertising works you'd know that companies shoot down offensive ad proposals all the time. I wouldn't be surprised if some Grady graduate is pitching Dead Baby flavor to Doritos right now.

[Ms Dollar]

Some things...

1.) This ad is from Brazil, where 9/11 doesn't resonate as powerfully/emotionally as it does here.

2.) It was thought up by some brainiac at an ad agency, not anyone involved with the WWF or any other environmentalism group.

3.) Michell Malkin is kinda dumb.

I really don't see the controversy behind this ad since they decided not to run it. Everyone hates it (even the WWF and environmentalists), the WWF didn't commission it or even ask DDF Brazil to do it, and the people at DDF Brazil who made it apparently lost their jobs. While it is disturbing etc all parties involved are trying to distance themselves from it. If they were supporting it I could see calling it a controversy.

If any of you knew how advertising works you'd know that companies shoot down offensive ad proposals all the time. I wouldn't be surprised if some Grady graduate is pitching Dead Baby flavor to Doritos right now.

Just an FYI: The only reason I called it controversial is because that's what the link said when I clicked on it on the AOL page. Either way I thought it was an interesting article and wanted to share it with my IA family.

[Jecht]

If it has garnered attention, it is doing exactly what it was meant for. Which it has.

[vinayak]

Some things...

1.) This ad is from Brazil, where 9/11 doesn't resonate as powerfully/emotionally as it does here.

2.) It was thought up by some brainiac at an ad agency, not anyone involved with the WWF or any other environmentalism group.

3.) Michell Malkin is kinda dumb.

I really don't see the controversy behind this ad since they decided not to run it. Everyone hates it (even the WWF and environmentalists), the WWF didn't commission it or even ask DDF Brazil to do it, and the people at DDF Brazil who made it apparently lost their jobs. While it is disturbing etc all parties involved are trying to distance themselves from it. If they were supporting it I could see calling it a controversy.

If any of you knew how advertising works you'd know that companies shoot down offensive ad proposals all the time. I wouldn't be surprised if some Grady graduate is pitching Dead Baby flavor to Doritos right now.

Shut up you tree hugging kool-aid drinking Piedmont park hanging out hippie.

check your vortex ims.

[BobbyFresco]

If it has garnered attention, it is doing exactly what it was meant for. Which it has.

This.

[Stormhammer]

that made me chuckle honestly

[thegovanator]

Honestly who gives a shit it's just an ad

[Julio]

All you are falling for their trick..

[thegovanator]

^Their

[uproot]

This isn't anything new. Ads are distasteful and controversial all the time. Play it safe and you're stuck with the same old stuff. It's up to the ad agencies to produce new thought provoking images and statements.

I don't feel this ad is a mockery of either event, it states facts and then uses imagery to allow the viewer to relate the two and realize their message.

[Ed]

silly americans...