Last night I was watching CNN news and they have a "Showbiz" news segment
where they discuss entertainment news in the evenings. They brought up a
story called "shocking ads", is this a new trend? The three ads they
presented were; the pregnant women log walkers, the ad council's ad for
breastfeeding, a anti smoking ad that was very graphic and a car commercial
that starts out with some friends driving in a car and out of nowhere they
are slammed by another car.

The only ad deemed inappropriate was the breastfeeding ad. The "expert" was
outraged and said the ad went to far, that she had mothers in her office
crying because the ad "made them feel guilty". She said the government had
no business "in her blouse" and there was no point to it. She was angry and
defensive, pointing her finger...saying, "I'm a mother, all this will do is
make women feel guilty for not breastfeeding...and if they breastfed...so?"
The graphic anti smoking ad was ok because it kept people from smoking and
the car ad was ok too because it increased sales for this particular car
company.

After I lifted my mouth off the floor, I pondered how interesting it is that
we can use shock value to sell a car or keep people from smoking, but we
cannot use it to spread the word about the hazards of NOT breastfeeding. I'm
probably biased, but I don't think the ad councils commercial is "shocking"
at all. Little does she know, she is seeing the tamed down version of it. It
was sad and frustrating.

Mary Anderson

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