Award-Winning Ad Taken Off Air In Australia 471
bol_kernal writes "An award-winning advertisement on Australian TV for the new Hyundai 4WD has been pulled from being broadcast after stations received 80 complaints from concerned parents. The ad consists of a small child, age around 2 years, cruising down the road, window down, arm out the window, in his new Hyundai 4WD. He sees a girl of the same age standing on the side of the road, pulls over picks her up, and they go to the beach together. All in all it's cute, funny, and very well done. The ad aired late in the evening (8:30 pm or later), but it was pulled due to concern from parents about the copycat risk. What I want to know is, where has the responsibility of parents gone? Is the world becoming so serious — or so frightened — that fantasy is no longer allowed?"
Simple answer: YES (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Simple answer: YES (Score:5, Insightful)
For some reason, these parents think ignorance is better for their children than knowing about and understanding an issue.
There is truth in The Onion (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/child_safety
Kenneth McMillan is a hero of the American People!!!
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Even better, they could've maybe kept those small, choking-hazard car keys out of reach of their kids...
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Re:Explain to a two year old? (Score:5, Funny)
1) Being old enough to have had children.
2) Being unselfish enough to have had children.
3) Having had sex.
I mean, read the posts already generated about reasoning with a 2 year old.
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PS: There is nothing *unselfish* about havin
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Ever stop and thank your parents for putting up with you?
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Survival of the species. Of course my own offspring are more important than everyone else. In nature, even in species with very strong social values, it is not uncommon for a parent to sacrifice themselves or other members of their troop to save the life of their own single child. I would
Re:Explain to a two year old? (Score:5, Funny)
If there is a 2-year-old out there smart enough to start up a car and drive it to the beach, I say let them go. They've earned it.
-Eric
Re:Explain to a two year old? (Score:4, Interesting)
Our 2 1/2 year old, in the space of about five minutes (or less) managed to get the keys from the hook where we keep them (about 5' from the floor), crawl through the doggie door into the garage, chirp the car open (keyless entry), get into the car and start it up. Our first warning was the engine starting, at which point we ran into the garage to see him extremely happy, with hazard lights and windshield wipers going to beat the band.
Very unsettling.
Luckily for us, he understands and obeys us when we absolutely forbid something. (Playing with power tools, going near the road, starting the car, starting the tractor, etc)
For those of you ready to flame me for my lack of preparedness, I keep the circuit breaker for the power tools off, the keys to the car and tractor are on hooks (in different places) at least 5' from the ground, I have put up a 4' no-climb fence around our yard, and generally keep the house reasonably safe. The main problem is that the use of stools and ladders present little difficulty to this adventurous inquisitive child.
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-Eric
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I apply what I feel to be a sounder principle, in that I do not give my 2.5 year old access to our car. It works like a charm. I parent with this crazy notion that, being full of fast and heavy and sharp and hot etc. etc. objects, the world is an intrinsically dangerous place and keeping my toddler safe in it is (gasp) my responsibility, which I ac
Re:Explain to a two year old? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Explain to a two year old? (Score:5, Insightful)
I know an awful lot of parents of well-behaved children who don't seem to have this problem. Perhaps it is YOU who can't control your children?
Regradless, you seem to be ignoring something important here. There are MANY things in the world that children could copy & end up hurting themselves. Should society ban all of them? In the car, they are much more likely to try to emulate you driving than the TV characters, so should you be banned from driving? Bugs Bunny drives-- without a seatbelt & often well over the speed limit even. Should Looney Tunes be banned? As another poster pointed out, should Peter Pan be banned since it makes children think that they can fly? Where do we stop?
No matter how carefully you try to avoid it, sooner or later your children will be exposed to a situation where they have to use their reasoning ability to make sure that they stay safe. All you are accomplishing by banning this ad is eliminating an opportunity to explain to your children why this behavior is bad and helping them to refine their critical thinking.
But if actual parenting is to much work for you, perhaps you should just put your two year old to bed before 8:30 PM? Then the entire problem goes away and no censorship is required.
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> get into a car with a stranger because he might take you to the beach -
> is to make sure your child never sees it in the first place.
Wait! I came up with another one. How about: keeping your children under adult supervision!
I've got three kids. Oldest is 8 years old, youngest will be 4 in April. This may come as quite a shock, but all three kids have never been unsupervised in their lives! I know it is amazing, but it
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I guess there should be another group consisting of "normal" parents who fight for common sense...
I have a suspicion that the "normal" parents with common sense would be somewhat too busy doing, you know... actual parenting.
Commercials because you deserve it (Score:5, Insightful)
You will be sure some kid will try this because it is shown on TV. Its not the parents job to foresee everything the child might do due to watching TV.
Rather, it is the parents duty today to bring up the kids without resorting to the TV and videogames.
Upbringing based on real-life, with real risks and real pain. Talking doesnt help when youre already living in a virtual reality. People talk about things all the time, complain about what should be done in the community. Talk is cheap. If you believe you have only one life, you better start to really live it.
It's things like this... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:It's things like this... (Score:5, Insightful)
Because the best way to inoculate people against authoritarianism is to force them to read something?
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Re:Simple answer: YES (Score:5, Informative)
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Youtube link fixed [youtube.com]
I for one am glad it's gone... (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:I for one am glad it's gone... (Score:5, Insightful)
Kids regard their parents as models much more than something from the telly. Even bad parents.
Re:I for one am glad it's gone... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I for one am glad it's gone... (Score:5, Funny)
You've got no fantasy
Complain! (Score:5, Funny)
From the Only in America dept. (Score:5, Insightful)
So you're the ones (Score:5, Funny)
I always wondered where all the Bush voters came from.
Re:So you're the ones (Score:5, Funny)
Bugger (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah we are like the states, in that we are also continually embarassed by our official representatives. They played the ad on the (after hours) news and talk shows the other night, I doubt it will stay banned for long. Besides, it doesn't really matter now since more or less all 20 million of us have paid some attention to it for free.
My hunch is all 80 of them belong to the bunch of neo-nazi's that call themselves the "Family first" party.
It's also interesting to note that this happened on the same weekend that Dick Chenney came to town. Security ground Sydney to a halt while Dick enjoyed a taxpayer funded $2M "beer with the PM", and (with not a little irony), pontificated about "violence and disruption".
"We want David Hicks back.": Our PM and AG will "do everything they can" except utter those five words since well they would...ummm....hand him over, as they have for every other nation after the US supreme court desicion was made a few years ago. This and several other issues has now made the PM's own seat in parliment very vunerable in the next election, (4% swing is required to unseat him). BTW: Please don't use the above information to infer the opposition are in any way more competent than the current crop.
Re:Bugger (Score:4, Informative)
In Australia it received a very small number of complaints. It did get upgraded to a PG rating meaning it could not be aired until 7:30pm, however. New Zealanders appeared to be a little more upset about it, but it wasn't banned.
Toyota voluntarily restricted the airing of the commercial until after 8:30pm in both countries.
Yes (Score:5, Insightful)
Is the world becoming so serious -- or so frightened -- that fantasy is no longer allowed?"
With one caveat. If it involves wealthy actors who play married hitmen trying to kill each other with everything from knives to rocket launchers, it's ok [imdb.com]. Same thing with movies depicting armies systematically destroying each other with machine guns, bombs, flamethrowers, etc. Basically, the bigger the magnitude of the killing, destruction, and carnage, the more acceptable. The smaller the scale, the more freaked out people get.
Re:Yes (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, APPARENTLY! Did you see how many complaints they got? OVER 80!!! That's no less than over 0.000004% of the population!
Re:Yes (Score:5, Informative)
The law was made because the major "australian" car manufacturer and their primary opposition (ford) were both glamourising speeding, burn outs, doughnuts etc. in car advertisements. I doubt the law was ever meant to cover situations which are technically difficult to reproduce.. afterall hyperbole is permitted in advertising (as long as it's evidently hyperbole and thus not misleading.)
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There is a better option which is to throw the TV out the window and get it over with. Almost everything that comes on it is not worth watching anyway but that's a suggestion that'll most probably get me branded as a luddite.
Re:Yes (Score:4, Insightful)
Newsflash: children don't always do as their told, and can't be monitored 24/7 (parents have to sleep sometime).
No, it wouldn't. It would compel them to do it in secret.
I'm not a parent, myself. What you say is a good idea, but one that not everyone will follow. Children are notorious for finding things that their parents think are well hidden, and it's hard to expect every parent to stick their keys in, say, a combination safe every night before going to sleep.
What would you think of an ad that depicted small children apparently having fun while playing with poisons, using knifes, shooting firearms, operating power tools, or installing an electrical outlet? Does that sound like a good idea to you? I'm all for personal responsibility in most things, but children don't always have adequate judgment, so I think the world is a safer place if we don't encourage them to do dangerous things.
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Hardly surprising. A two year old is more likely to grab the keys to the car than to wield a machine gun. Now, the kid reaching the brake pedal to shift into drive...
Irony... (Score:2, Interesting)
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Youtube link (Score:5, Informative)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=g37Z8Scbj8E [youtube.com]
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Mine's way cooler though: http://youtube.com/watch?v=o1LybpnekIo [youtube.com]
Fine, it's actually exactly the same. You'd think I'd have something better to do, but no.
Things are way out of hand (Score:5, Insightful)
All in all it's cute, funny, and very well done. The ad aired late in the evening (8:30 pm or later), but it was pulled due to concern from parents about the copycat risk. What I want to know is, where has the responsibility of parents gone? Is the world becoming so serious -- or so frightened -- that fantasy is no longer allowed?"
Let me preface this by saying that I am a conservative Christian. Now, I have done some research and found out that most electronic devices that emit photons and audio waves have a switch which allows me to turn them off. The effort required to do that is even less than it is for me to get incensed and make a complaint. Why don't other people get this? Don't want to see it? Turn it off. Don't want the kids to see it? Turn it off.
Re:Things are way out of hand (Score:4, Insightful)
(Side discussion: This also indicates a certain fundamentally dishonest nature of ads, which is implicitly admitted by the perpetrators as they avoid to be fully open about the ad schedule).
Re:Things are way out of hand (Score:4, Insightful)
My guess is it's the people who leave their kids with the TV all night and always leave their keys in the car (possibly in the ignition) who are the most irate. "What if junior craws into the garage and starts the car because of what he done seen on teevee?" Turning a free babysitter off or remembering where they put their keys are things that are fundamentally beyond the intelligence of the type of people who are complaining.
While I don't mind seeing stupid people die, their children shouldn't be doomed to the same fate. Statistically, only 50% of stupid people's children are themselves stupid, so we should at least protect the 25% of smart children with stupid parents, hmm?
Re:Things are way out of hand (Score:5, Insightful)
People are astonished that we do not have a TV. It is good for us, and good for our daughter. However, most people would no more give up their TV, any more than a heroin addict will give up their drug.
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Yeah. That is a tricky one.
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That's a very good point, and the line that I take with stuff on TV I find offensive. However, it's not that this is offensive - what we have is the *exact opposite* of all those public safety films that we grew up with saying "Don't get into cars with strangers". You remember this [youtube.com] don't you?
Re:Things are way out of hand (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Things are way out of hand (Score:5, Insightful)
Most of these people complaining are not doing so by their own violation, but rather, they are doing so after being told/commanded to by their social and religious leaders. Simply put, they're told about the ad/book/game/tv show/etc in church, around the coffee table, by their old friends, etc, and the Alpha of the group has them all write letters off to whomever they think might cowtow to them, trying to essentially blackmail the stations into submission.
The truly sad thing is that it works -- and that the attack drones don't even have to have ever seen the show to begin with. (Or do you really believe a few hundred thousand conservative Christians listen to Howard Stern and got upset about it?) It's rather sad that the Moral Majority has been reduced to trained howler monkeys, ready to fling poo on command, but, well, there ya have it.
They do the same thing with pretty much anything they don't like. Music, video games, websites, you name it. And it's only going to get worse now that they succeeded once against Howard Stern.
kids these days... (Score:4, Funny)
stalkers (Score:2)
I don't get this one at all. If you are worried about your kid playing with the car (which is understandable), why not teach your kids NOT TO PLAY IN THE CAR? The kids are eventually
Obvious flaw (Score:3, Interesting)
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A disease (Score:2, Insightful)
This is getting pathetic... (Score:5, Insightful)
There is a saying I've heard many a time: HARDEN THE FUCK UP. Seriously, if people keep raising hell about such trivial matters, soon there won't be any imagination, any creativity, any fun in the world. People will be afraid to do ANYTHING due to lawsuits.
It will be a truly dull place to live in.
VERY dangerous to children (Score:5, Funny)
Two-year olds driving, yeah, that's cool, but what if they start acting out what they see on TV and driving on the left side of the road? Trying to steer the car from the passenger side? What kind of example is the media setting for our kids?
Won't someone think of the CHILDREN!
Crazy foreigners, corrupting our American youth...
Yes, I realize non-U.S. citizens read
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Then again, disclaimers can serve a purpose - if a post is off-topic, for example, clearly mentioning that in the subject should be enough to ward off those looking for conversation that is on topic.
But, from time to time, even a disclaimer is no good. For example, this post: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=216756&cid=175 97552 [slashdot.org]
I clearly marked it as off top
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I'd have banned the ad.. (Score:2)
Copy cat? (Score:3, Funny)
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I was going to compain (Score:2)
Why defend an advert? (Score:2, Insightful)
So even though the advert in question is pretty innocuous I am not too disturbed if it has been pulled. As I see it, whats the downside, an advert is pulled. Whats the upside, a very unlikely (IMO) copycat event is prevented. I can live with that.
Won't someone please welcome (Score:2)
Ugh. Since everything is done with the 'children' in mind, they are in fact becoming our overlords.
Seriously. Can't you just hang your keys higher on the wall? Tell your kids the difference between TV and Real Life? Put a kill switch on the vehicle?
I know this is a commercial and all, but really. Why does the extent of my life's experiences have to be dictated by your inability to parent your children?
Ikea Lamp Ad (Score:2)
It's allowed, but human irrationality has to be taken into account. Playing on that is what makes this Ikea ad [youtube.com] so effective. Putting babies in danger even in fun was perhaps ballsier than the ad creators realized.
Look Who's Talking (Score:2)
Maybe these people have never seen Look Who's Talking [imdb.com] or or the either of the other two sequels - those baby's did a lot more interesting things.
Besides that, I am curious as to how a baby would be physically capable of copying that ad
Same thing happened to an American ad a year ago (Score:2)
I would just like to say a big FUCK YOU! to every moron who gets offended.
Remember one of the early South Park episo
Australia has 20,555,300 people... (Score:2)
During the 2006 Emmys, Conan O'Brien was in a skit that featured a plane crash. Earlier that day, a plane actually crashed in Kentucky. By Australia's logic, Conan's skit would have to be pulled because h
repulsive (Score:2)
"repulsive" was the first word that occurred to me when i saw it on TV.
Do they verify? (Score:2)
I am deeply concerned about those ads ... (Score:2)
Being from a different region of the world, I do not know the ad mentioned, but whatever they show: why do those concerned parents let their children watch TV at "8:30 pm or later" where they can see those ads in the first pla
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Oh, Maude Flanders... (Score:2)
I'm impressed. (Score:2, Funny)
Now Australia did take their peoples guns away, now they're pulling a commercial we would probably allow in the U.S. Let the race to see who can be the biggest pussy begin! Hey! No running! Somebody might get hurt!
Think of us adults! (Score:2)
Besides if kids start dating at age 2, what happens to poor Aussie slashdotters
Easy (Score:2)
Why? Because filing a complaint is much easier and more efficient than expressing love, giving attention and spending time to teach important things to kids. Time is money you know!
Truth and advertising (Score:3, Insightful)
Well (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:It seems to be a touchy subject.... but (Score:5, Insightful)
This happened in Australia, so all your talk about religion, sep of church & state, etc. is so far off base I don't know where to begin.
Anyways, here's what TFA says
So, if it was just the complaints, it is likely that nothing would have happened.
BUT, as it turns out, a literal reading of the applicable Code suggests to The Advertising Standards Board that the complaints are legitimate.
This is exactly why there are government agencies who do such investigations.
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Absolutely nothing. But that's not going to stop folks like the parent poster from screwing on their tinfoil hats too tight.
Re:Nothing has changed (Score:4, Insightful)
Instead of complaining about the ad, it would have been better to talk to their children about it.
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Had the goverment stepped in - you'd have a point. But it didn't. The goverment responded to concerns, which is very different from 'stepping in'. (I shouldn't have to point out that responding to the concerns of its citizens is one of the basic functions of goverment.)
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"Responding to the concerns of its citizens" also got us the Inquisition, the Salem witch trials, "blue laws," Jim Crow laws, and all kinds of other stupidity over the course of history. Hell, the Roman Empire destroyed itself by "responding to the concerns of its citizens" by giving them too much bread and circuses!
In other words, the fact that some citizens are concerned about an issue does not mean those concerns are valid! (I shouldn't have to point out that distinguishing between valid and invalid co
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Re:Nothing has changed (Score:5, Informative)
responsible parenting has gone somewhere; in the process, it also grabbed hold of some of our liberties and took off with them.
Re:Nothing has changed (Score:5, Funny)
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This advertisement doesn't really increase the risks significantly at all, since all kids want to pretend to be like mommy/daddy.
Basically, your child is going to copy you and other people. If you do things right, your child will be copying you primarily, doing things right.
I remember pretending to drive a car when I was very very y
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Re:hmmmm - correction (Score:3, Interesting)
The incident is pretty recent - 22 days ago. Sorry, it wasnt her dad - it was a bunch of way-too-young kids who persuaded some local bloke (bit of a slow character by the sounds of it), to let everyone jump in the hilux and go for a yippe ride round the dirt roads.
We are talking about a 14yo driver and other kids aged as young as 13.
Very similar to what happens in the advert - except without the slow bloke, and the kids in the story h