12/4/2003: Baby / cockroach ad

(Sorry to any UK readers who are already aware of this)

This is an advertisement. One assumes it's also a fake.

It's an advertisement from Barnardo's, a childrens charity group in the UK, who wanted to point out how 1 in 3 children in Britain are born into poverty. Thus the not-at-all-obvious pun, altering "born with a silver spoon in his mouth" with "silver cockroach". Yes, that's what they intend; the campaign, which is defended here by Barnardo's, is entitled "Silver Spoon".

In turn, this has led to the most complaints to the government's Advertising Standards Authority since a condom ad in 1995.

If it was intended to both offend and get publicity, I guess it did; stirred up media attention.

I don't understand what the big deal is. The way I see it, that baby was born with food in it's mouth. Good protein. Sheesh.




GBA

DNK

Doesn't that baby's head look mishaped?

Great timing on that image, too -- I was just sitting down to lunch with a fresh, crunchy salad.

Hurk.

Newborns often have misshaped heads. They usually even out eventually.

Thank god I no longer have roaches.

just be careful of his little fontenelle!

Tribe? Coneheads?

How did they shape the skull? What about the brain cavity?

Not the best photoshoping job I've ever seen.

Hey didn't the last issue of the Weekly World News have an article on some kind of bug that gets in your head and eats your brain?

Everybody be very careful

Source?

Here is the Condom ad that got pulled in 1995. It was a health and safety ad from the British Safety Council that features Pope John Paul II in a hard hat under the motto ' The 11th commandment - always wear a condom'. This ad illustrates pretty well how tricky the job of vetting can be. The ASA's adjudication acknowledged the educational good intent in the advert but upheld that it was deeply offensive to Catholics, particularly in view of the unauthorised use of an image of his Holiness and that church's ethical stance on the prohibition of contraception.

Interesting! Very interesting.

Here's a rough translation.

(edit: actually, this site is in english)

For them to try to say that these are a new species that came before Homo sapiens is total B.S. Human's didn't come to the new world until about 11,000 years ago!

So, what are they saying? Poor people can't afford pacifiers?

do not follow link prior to eating!

Christ, I thought aids was bad, I wonder if you can feel them move?

Re: do not follow link prior to eating!

Hey! Isn't that April's kid?

I love: "Turn to the right."

(every now and again I get the opportunity to say this, and do so with the proper inflection. Every now and then someone gets it.)

"Okay, then."

And "When we didn't have crawdads, we et sand."

Raising Arizona is one of my favorite movies. Great. Now I have to see it again. I hope I can unearth my video copy. Does anyone have the DVD and are there good extras on it?

(ooh ... in the course of checking IMDB I found this quote which has extreme relevance here: "Anyone found bipedal in five wears his ass for a hat!")

[IMG]2003/youatesand.jpg[/IMG]

You ate sand?

The DVD I have has no good extras, though I bought it early in the DVD days and maybe there's a better edition out now.