ASB unimpressed with pizza theft in McCain ad
McCain has been censured by the Ad Standard Board over an ad depicting a pizza being stolen from a pizza deliveryman, with the ad watchdog arguing the TV ad normalises theft.
https://youtu.be/oiOdN-olrhA
A complainant objected to “portrayal of bailing up and stealing from the young pizza driver, as being something that is acceptable behaviour”.
McCain defended the spot saying it incorporated “‘slapstick’ style of humour”.
“McCain is of the view that the advertisement, in its depiction of the removal of the pizza from the motorised scooter, does not contravene social values,” the advertiser told the ASB.
While McCain listed previous rulings by the ASB that considered whether a depiction of someone taking something from someone else, in a humorous context, would contravene social values, it was the Board’s view that, as the reports dated back over ten years, community standards would have changed over this time.
“As this particular activity – stealing from a pizza delivery person – is an actual crime, this portrayal in the advertisement may be seen to condone stealing,” the ASB said.
It was the board’s view that victims of crime in such circumstances were often traumatised and that the comedic and humorous nature of the ad was “not sufficient to mitigate the impact of stealing the pizza”.
The board upheld the complaint.
In response to the ruling, McCain said the 30 second TV spot was “no longer scheduled for free to air television and will not appear again its current form”.
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Oh please get a grip…its a fun ad.
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What’s with the phallic cacti?
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Where is the so called humour in this ad? Why could they not have ordered a takeaway pizza, and conducted the same test? The cactus is there only for the blindfolded man to prick his finger, and the basic humour component is the man dancing in front of the delivery guy, whilst the other guy steels the pizza.
Oh yes, he does steel the pizza, which is theft, and quite wrong, in case you didn’t know.
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Stevo – a phallic cactus has one hell of a prick on it.
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