Week 2 EOC: Three Examples of Questionable Ethics

1. "I love boobies" campaign for breast cancer awareness. "When death is truly knocking at your door -- and I'm not talking about early, uncertain casess - most aren't thinking about how much they love their breasts, they're thinking about how much they love not being dead, so they're thinking; chop those things off" says a woman who's mother was affected by breast cancer.
 http://www.lemondrop.com/2010/09/07/i-love-boobies-breast-cancer-campaign-sparks-outrage/

The ad is tasteless and offensive to say the least. It is basically saying a women's breasts are more important than her beating the disease. I've noticed most of the people who wear the bracelets are young boys, who probably don't even know what it's for! Breast cancer affects 1 out of 4 women, and shouldn't be taken lightly or comically. Ads for breast cancer awareness should focus on saving the woman's life, rather than only being concerned with keeping her breasts.

2. I found an ad for Spirit Airlines, which was a picture of a woman lying on the beach reading over her "Check out the oil on our beaches, Ft. Lauderdale". The company is known for making offensive and inappropriate ads, but I found this one the worst of them all. "Many of Spirit’s ads have been so bad that most companies would consider them damaging if they appeared for their brands" says an article.

http://www.bnet.com/blog/advertising-business/spirit-airlines-sophomoric-ads-show-the-irrelevance-of-branding-for-discount-sellers/5086bnet.com

It is basically using a woman as the punchline to an ill ridden joke about the BP oil spill.



3. "Some would say that the use of such strong imagery was completely justified as getting the message through to unreceptive hard core smoker is a tough task" http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2008/apr/30/sotheadvertisingstandardsa

says an article about a smokers ad that was featured in the UK. I understand that the advertisers wanted to get a clear message across that smoking is bad for you, and that anyone who smokes will probably smoke for life; but the ad is too literal that it became disturbing. Everyone knows cigarettes are bad for you, we don't need a disturbing ad to remind us.