webnarc Posted April 7, 2004 Share Posted April 7, 2004 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/04/04/ncat04.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/04/04/ixhome.html By Elizabeth Day (Filed: 04/04/2004) Even for the most lateral-thinking advertising executive, it appears to have been a catastrophic misjudgment. An online advert for a Ford car in which a cat is decapitated by a sunroof has been condemned by animal charities. The internet video clip to promote the Ford SportKa features a ginger domestic cat leaping on to the car's bonnet, peering into the open sunroof and getting guillotined when the panel closes. The cat's headless body is then seen sliding down the windscreen. Ford and Ogilvy & Mather, the advertising agency behind the advert, insist that the clip was never designed for public consumption. It was, they say, intended as a "viral marketing" tactic - designed to be sent via the internet from one individual to another - although this idea was subsequently rejected by Ford on taste grounds. A clip costing several thousand pounds and showing a pigeon being catapulted to its death by a bonnet springing open was approved and released last September. However, the rejected advertisement began circulating on the internet last week, at first because of an apparent mistake, and then spurred by black-humoured web users who passed it around. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals failed to see the funny side. "Using highly distasteful depictions of animal suffering to sell a product is abhorrent," a spokesman said. "The concept should never have been mooted and we hope that the outcry will send a clear message to advertising agencies that making fun of cruelty is unacceptable." Paul Alexander, the head of marketing at Cats Protection, Britain's biggest feline welfare charity, was also aghast. "Cats Protection has to deal with the results of many cases of cruelty to cats and we are totally opposed to anything which promotes or makes light of any animal mistreatment," he said. Although Ford has denied leaking the advertisement to boost publicity for its car, the company has been trying to promote the SportKa's "bad boy" image since its launch late last year. It has promoted the car's "laddish" credentials in order to distinguish it from the closely-related Ka model, which is generally seen as a vehicle driven by women. The company even presented Wayne Rooney, the teenage Everton and England footballer, with a SportKa on the day he passed his driving test. An enthusiastic Ford press release claimed at the time that both the car, worth about £10,000, and Rooney, worth about £15 million, shared "explosive pace [and] a solid and gritty substance to their style". The grittiness of the decapitated cat clip appears to have backfired, however. Ford's rivals have raced to denounce its dubious marketing practices. "We condemn acts of such blatant cruelty in a desperate attempt to sell cars," said a spokesman for Vauxhall, Ford's biggest competitor in Britain. Both Ford and Ogilvy & Mather - which handles the car maker's £27 million account - have branded the leaking of the ad "totally unacceptable and reprehensible". "A full investigation has been ordered by Ford and Ogilvy to determine how this unapproved material found its way into the public domain," said a spokesman for Ford. "The action in the video clip was totally computer generated - no animal was harmed." But one advertising executive insisted that Ford was protesting too much. "No publicity is bad publicity and the cynical part of me thinks that this 'leaking' was intended all along," he said. "It's got them terrific media coverage, after all." Nor is it the first time Ford and Ogilvy & Mather - one of the world's best known agencies - have found themselves mired in controversy. In 1996, a Ford promotional brochure was doctored to super-impose white faces on four black workers at the Dagenham plant. The blunder was noticed by another Ford employee and the ensuing row forced Ford to pay out £6,000 compensation to the workers involved. The video - http://www.apqx89.dsl.pipex.com/Cat.mpg [line] An idea totally stolen from Itchy and Scratchy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdsknbill Posted April 7, 2004 Share Posted April 7, 2004 That is terrible, but I hate cats, so I found it quite amusing. :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riggo-toni Posted April 7, 2004 Share Posted April 7, 2004 That was friggin' hilarious!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMac Posted April 7, 2004 Share Posted April 7, 2004 That was funny and sick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonard Washington Posted April 7, 2004 Share Posted April 7, 2004 the sportka and streetka are pretty dope. i wonder how safe they are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.