According to some of the media reportsand industry bloggers, it sounds like Verizon has pulled their TV commercial that featured the two junk yard dog pit bulls. I'm not surprised. Ads get pulled all the time, with far less outcry than what this spot received. Congrats to the animal welfare community for making your voices heard. I think it's really important for the animal welfare community to realize how powerful their voices can be when they all speak together in one voice. Don't forget that feeling.
Now for the advertising people. I feel somewhat uniquely qualified to speak on this one as an owner of two pit bulls -- but also because I make my career working in an advertising agency. So I get that angle too.
Here's the deal:
1) Before the advertising industry gets too up in arms over the people who don't get their creativity, put yourself in their shoes for a minute. Every year, thousands of people find themselves in a unique situation where they have to fight for the right to keep their dogs. Just tonight, dozens of people lined the walls of city hall in Sioux City, IA (I have a client there) to fight against a proposed ban on the very dogs you chose to use in your ad. These people may be faced with the gut wrenching decision of whether or not to keep their dog, or keep their home. So pardon us if we get a little upset by a commercial that casts the very stereotype that has created this problem in the first place. Call us hyper-sensitive. Call us jerks. Call us unaware of your creative genius. But spend a few years in city council meetings fighting for the life of your dog and call me when you're done.
2) If you are so unaware of pop culture, public events, and the news, to have not heard of some of the horrible things that happen to these dogs you need to get out of the advertising business. Having a good, solid knowledge of pop culture and of life in general is important if you're going to create effective advertising. If you're still not aware of what these dogs have suffered through, google "Mike Vick, Pit Bull" and spend a day or two reading. BTW, the dogs are doing really well, thanks.
3) If your creative concept relies on hyping an overused stereotype, your concept is neither unique nor creative. Good creative concepts and executions surprise, fascinate or delight viewers. They create an a-ha (not the '80s band) that cause people look at something ordinary, differently. A concept that relies on the lowest-common-denominator of a stereotype fails at these tasks. Stereotypes are expected...there is nothing worse than using the expected in advertising. The animal welfare community did you a favor.
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