Funny bone hard to locate

Agencies say complaints about adverts show we've lost our sense of humour. IRENE CHAPPLE finds how PC the agencies have to be.

The seven-year-old's comments were probably the last straw.

After hearing gunshots during an advert on Solid Gold FM, she asked if someone had been killed.

The radio ad for the Christchurch Press weekend edition started with the sound of a man sighing, ready to relax and read the weekend paper when a lawnmower was revved up. The man made an annoyed sound and got a gun, which was then heard being loaded. Three loud gunshots later, birdsong resumed and peace was restored.

"I find this advertisement totally objectionable and it has upset me every time I've heard it play on the radio," M. J. Andrews complained to the Advertising Standards Authority.

"Even my seven-year-old daughter asked in a shocked tone if someone had been killed. I would not expect to hear such a violent advertisement being played on mainstream radio."

The complainant said they had rung the Press to complain, and been told they thought they had used humour in making the advertisement, but "I can find absolutely nothing funny whatsoever in the sound of someone being shot".

The Press said that this was the sole complaint about the ad, and it was confident it had not caused widespread offence.

Advertising agency Urlwin McDonald and Clients (UMC) said its interpretation of the ad was that the lawnmower rather the person doing the mowing had been shot.

Most of the authority noted all defendants had referred to the use of humour in the ad, but decided there was nothing funny about the sound of a gun being fired as a weapon.

"Violence in the manner suggested in the advertisement was unacceptable and was not saved by humour," it concluded.

The ad was pulled off air.

Political correctness overkill? UMC creative director Neil McDonald thinks so. Last month's decision left him astounded.



He says the 'burbs of Christchurch buzz with lawnmowers during the weekend. The advertisement was empathising with the plight of those wanting to relax.

Plus, he points out, "pre 8 o'clock on television there are killings and weaponry and heads being blown off, yet we can't play an advertisement with a gunshot sound.

"You've got to ask yourself did the kid ever see The Simpsons and get upset by that? Why did she single out this benign piece of communication?"

Executive director of the authority, Glen Wiggs, says the decision was difficult.

"It's always a fine line when it comes to humour. It's a line in the sand, and [we have to ask] which side it falls. What is it being joked about, and how good is the creative. [In this case] they almost got away with it, but board didn't think the humour was sufficient."

McDonald is incredulous.

"New Zealand is leading the world in political correctness," he says. "Particularly when it comes to easy targets like advertising. New Zealand is becoming a regulated and unhumorous place."

Wiggs disagrees New Zealanders are becoming more uptight. He believes our humour is sophisticated, and while UMC's radio ad got the boot, other hotly debated ads such as Toyota's Bugger campaign, created by Saatchi & Saatchi, pushed the boundaries to eventually be embraced by New Zealanders.

However, others in the advertising industry agree heartily with McDonald.

David Walden is managing director of Auckland agency Whybin TBWA, creators of the ASB Bank Ira Goldstein campaign .

The main character, Ira Goldstein, is regarded as an American Jew. Touchy stuff. Using humour when dealing with religion or ethnicity is regarded, along with death, as a sensitive area.

Barbara Chapman, head of retail and marketing at ASB Bank, says the character has had overwhelmingly positive feedback. Even so, complaints about stereotyping when the advertisements first aired mean the bank now confers with Jewish representatives in Auckland and Wellington when a new storyline is developed.

While that campaign was a success, Walden is critical of the number of complaints fielded by agencies and clients. He believes the industry has become hostage to professional complainants.

"We spent a lot of time now dealing with the vocal minority who don't have a humorous bone in their body, or who sit there trying to make trouble for someone," he says.

New Zealanders are suffering a national loss of a past devil-may-care attitude.

"We're becoming frightened to upset people. But often the best humour reflects back to society not what you really want, but what is true. To make some humour work you need stereotypes, and we're being a bit cautious. We shouldn't be afraid to laugh at ourselves - the best advertising is when we are able to poke a stick at ourselves."

Religion was the sticking point for a past Speights beer billboard campaign. Originally run in the South Island, a Saatchi & Saatchi campaign preaching in "In Dog we Trust," was deemed acceptable.

However, when put up as an interim advertisement in Tauranga early this year, a complaint from a local church meant the billboard was removed.

And chuckles were encouraged in a Public Trust campaign, created by Foote Cone & Belding, that sold the importance of wills. It used "irreverent and smart humour", says copywriter Kirsten Rutherford.

"It's got to be appropriate. We don't want to offend people - it's where you draw the line, it's just commonsense."

While it gathered complaints from those who felt discomfort at the flippant treatment of the subject, Public Trust marketing manager Melanie Federico says research showed 70 per cent of consumers felt the advertising is appropriate.

Even light subjects are not immune to complaints. A latex rubber orca starring in a Burger King commercial, created by Lowe, upset around 20 people during its two week television run last month.

The advertisement showed the orca dragging itself across the sand in an attempt to reach a lemon pepper flaky fish burger left tantilisingly high on the beach. Not funny, said orca lovers.

The advertisement had been tested prior to airing, says Burger King's Glen Corbett. "The overwhelming response was 'gosh that's funny'." Despite that, he wasn't entirely surprised to get complaints, and says the company has apologised.

Lowe's chief executive Stephen Pearson is philosophical. "You can't be all things to all people," he muses.

And humour is, by its nature, utterly subjective, and that in turn fuels debate over who should push the boundaries.

McDonald wants to see agencies push the line, and is unhappy with self-imposed limitations on advertising.

Rutherford works under a FCB mantra introduced by former creative director Rob Sherlock: "There's only one thing about humour. It's got to be funny."