Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Can you find what's offensive?

Sometimes I really think our country is in this mode of being too hypersensitive about any potential perceived offensiveness in any advertisement. How far are we supposed to go as marketers to ensure that nobody could ever be offended by something in an advertisement? How much resources do you have to spend towards ensuring everything is 'clean'? I'm all for doing a minimum amount of research into other cultures, languages, etc. to see how your message could be interpreted. However, in general I think the hypersensitivity of things that could potentially be offensive is getting a little out of control in recent years.

Could you spot what's offensive by just looking at the picture alone (given you haven't already heard about this story yet)?