Radio ad for Charlotte Pass Alpine Resort lambasted for ‘outdated stereotype’ suggesting blondes are stupid
A radio advertisement for a ski resort in Kosciuszko National Park, Charlotte Pass Alpine Resort, has been banned by the ad watchdog for using an “outdated and poor stereotype” suggesting blonde women are unintelligent and have hollow heads.
The ad, which aired on the radio, is voiced by former TV game show host John Burgess and commences with a joke about blonde snowmen saying “Why does it take longer to build a blonde snowman than a regular one? You have to hollow out the head”.
The advertiser strongly disagreed with the determinaton
Apparently Blondes are more intelligent than other hair colours because they can attract the more intelligent gentlemen to marry. Don’t forget everybody likes blondes. When you relax in being blonde, you don’t have to display any more attraction traits because men just chase you. So that explain why blondes can act dumb. Now making a blonde Swedish snowman with no brains is only an affront to Volvo drivers who all invented the theory of relativity (all Ovlov’s drive backwards relative to other cars –Albert Einstein had nothing to do with it).
I’ve met so many blonde Board members (it seems that have to be blonde) and they often, given some of the recent performances, have hollow heads, so this snowman is only accurate for Australian blonde board directors. It least we cannot malign the Chinese Nation , where there are no blondes.
Oh dear.
If anyone has actually been to Charlottes Pass, ‘outdated’ is one of the nicer descriptions.
Seriously, how does this happen? I’ve been called the ‘Marketing Police’ before but surely the agency strategists, and the producers (at the very least) had the foresight to stand up and raise the flag for that brand? We owe it to brands who rely on agencies so heavily to stand up and say something, even if we are a long way along the approval chain. Producers of content should have more voice. I’d certainly be putting up a flag and showing concern for the brand damage that I could see coming on that one.
On another note – I can absolutely vouch for the fact that this stereotype exists. Having been brunette and then giving blonde a go the difference in how I was treated was astounding – both in how I was attracting different men that I’d never attracted before, and also in how I was treated when I’d typically been considered an intelligent person before. Prejudice of all sorts needs to be stopped.
Smells like Wicked Vans marketing strategy repeated. It was meant to be insulting and meant to get more attention than they’re budget would otherwise extend.
Their not they’re
Two handed commercials require a smart person who uses the product, and a dumb person who doesn’t, but becomes smart by doing so.