Week 2 EOC: Questionable Ethics in Advertising

This advertisement, which looks like it is from the 50's-60's, is a prime example of questionable ethics in advertising. It is on shaky ground that an agency produce an ad or campain that depicts physical violence to anyone, much less a husband to a wife. Especially in that time frame it was very taboo to speak about any such matter. On the other hand, one can infer that there are sexual undertones from this. Ususally when a man beats a woman, they would not be hitting them on their bottom. This shows there might be some tongue and cheek sexual act reference in here. This still questionable even by today's standard.

This ad from Dolce & Gabbana is outright offensive. From the positions in which the men and woman are in, there is an implication of a "gang rape" which is about to happen. The 4 men are all in various stages of undress while the man in the center is pinning the woman's arms to the side of her. Why any agency would think up anything so offensive to women is beyond me. It is not sexy at all which is what the Italian design house Dolce & Gabbana is known for. I understand to catch the average person's attention it might take pushing the envelope or creating visually provacative, but this is highly unethical. Any depiction of a woman being pinned down with men surrounding her should be unacceptable for any periodical to publish. 

 



This billboard ad from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals had ironically created a firestorm of questions when this was released as to its ethics in depicting an obese woman. The ad implies that she is the whale and in order for her to lose weight and look good in her bikini she should go vegetarian. PETA is no stranger to controversy regarding their ad campains. Their main focus is to be so controversial and shock people into listening to what they have to say. They believe very strongly in animal rights and this is how they express their beliefs. I do not think it is ethical to discriminate against overweight or obese people in any kind of advertisement for the sake of getting people's attention. It is no better than poking fun at a handicapped person or racial discrimination.