The television, or the idiot box, as it is today known, came into our lives in the '50s. The television is sometimes said to be one of the most business strategies ever created. Imagine, from the salesman's point of view, they would have an entire nation watching and listening closely to every word uttered for a set amount of time.
Needless to say, the television exposed us to media like never before, bringing foreign worlds, fantastic ideas and advertisements to our living room. Television advertising is generally a thirty second audio visual clipping telling us the features and advantages of a particular product. Since the time span of an advertisement is so less, the advertisement should always be exciting, interesting and get the point through immediately. If we marry the concept that advertisements are always time bound and that human psychology is always attracted to controversy, we get the perfect advertisement, not good advertising, not bad advertising, but perfect advertising - controversial advertising.
Controversy and media has gone hand in hand since time incarnate. A controversy depends on various factors. One of them being the target market of the advertisement. What may be passe in one country may be blasphemy in another, that is one main reason why even multinationals seldom keep the same advertising company across countries, leave alone continents.
Controversy in television advertising can be related to anything, the religion, culture, general opinion. Most often, the controversy will center around the more baser inclinations, like sex. One such (banned) advertisement making the rounds on the popular film clips website was about women using a female sexual object, with the Christmas tune 'O Come All Ye Faithful...' without the '...To Bethlehem' in the end. in the background. Another recent example of controversial advertisements was when Go Daddy girl Candice Michelle acted out a particularly risque advertisement during the Superbowl XXXIX.
A major percentage of advertisements for condoms, sexual objects and to an extent personal effects like deodorants, perfumes tiptoe on the thin line between intelligent advertising and controversial advertising. Sex isn't the only concept that has been used in controversial advertising. Sometimes, advertising speaking about current events have come under flak from various support group. Theoretically speaking, how would one like a raincoat ad based on the concept of the not-so-recent-now Tsunami?
Some advertisements gain controversy just by being, for example the Crazy Frog advertisement. When the advertisement was broadcast in on Belgian Television, some parents complained that the frog in the advertisement appeared to have genitalia, while some others complained about the frequency of the advertisement. Showing genitalia in advertisements and other product collateral is not something new. An international cigarette brand had a man showing his genitalia through line art for many years. Legend has it that the cartoonist thought he wasn't paid his correct worth.
Another case of controversial advertising is using famous or infamous figures. For example, Benetton became the center of controversy when it decided to use Victor Taylor the main accused in the Trinity murders as models for their advertisements in 2000 titled 'We, On Death Row'.
Though controversial advertising is said to disturb people at the most, there are other types of controversial advertising that has raised the heckles of consumers. False advertising stands high on this list. False advertising is when the company makes false statements in a deliberate manner to generate consumer interest and therefore, gain revenue.
Controversial advertising does have it returns as well as pitfalls. Where many companies may be told to pay a fine if their advertisements are deemed to be controversial, there have been cases where the person responsible for the advertisements has been jailed. For example, a few years ago, an in-house advertising idea caused employees of a bank to be put into prison. Their ad copy said that they wished to search for terrorists who could give them the most number of victims for their insurance policies.
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