The recent thread about commercials you hate reminded me of a topic I've been thinking about for a while; Commercials that were (apparently) censored because they weren't politically correct.
A car commercial from a couple/few years ago featured a mother driving her young daughter and baby through a country area. I'm a little sketchy on the details, but the discussion turns to how the parents named them. I forget if she asks about her name, or the baby's name, but the mother explains that the name was chosen because it was the place where they were conceived. The girl then asks how one of them got the name Concorde, then she glances at the dashboard where the name of the car, "Concorde", is written. As the car drives off into the distance, you hear the girl go "Eeeewwww". Later, they removed the last line and replaced it with the mother saying "Concorde Massachusetts, silly".
Another one, I forget exactly what the commercial was for, had a teenager narrating while it showed scenes of him and his friends doing various things over the summer. Basically, he was telling the story of one of his friends who kept trying to get a girlfriend, but every time he starts to make some progress, the kid's mother shows up and drags him home. The commercial ended with the guy saying "My advice? Get a car, fake an injury, and stop telling your mother where we're hanging out!" Later the last line was changed to "My advice? Get a car, fake an injury, and make out with girls before your curfew."
Recently, there was a Toyota Corolla commercial with a very hot blonde showing off her new car to her girlfriend. She tells her "I even had money left over, so I bought Steve something". Her girlfriend asks why she'd buuy anything for her ex boyfriend and the blonde just smiles. It then shows "Steve", who looks like the stereotypical loser in these type commercials, opening his blinds to discover a billboard right across the street with an image of him in the nude (his head is blocking the crotch). It ends with a shot of the blonde grinning. I haven't seen this one in a week or two and I heard a rumor that some people complained that it was male-bashing, so I guess Toyota pulled it. Wusses...
Anyone know of any others?
Concorde? Isn't that the name of Roger Corman's current company? Carnosaur? "Raptor"?
EWWW!!!
Raptor.... no wonder they chanced it.
I knew I forgot one;
During the recent Superbowl (I didn't watch it, just heard about it after), there was an ad for the internet domain registration company GoDaddy.com where a woman is testifying before some kind of government committee. When she stands up, one of the straps on her top breaks. You don't see anything, her top stays in place, just that the strap falls down. Apparently the NFL felt that it would remind people too much of the Janet Jackson incident (which I guess it spoofs and which was a horrible, evil moment in TV history that traumatized millions!!!!!!) and forced the second airing of the commercial to be pulled. They didn't even run the "Sponsored by..." tag that the contract required, neither did they refund the money GoDaddy.com paid for the ads. I've seen the ad and it's VERY tame.
During the Super Bowl, in the second quarter they showed a commercial with a huge breasted woman in front of a mock council. The ad was for Godaddy.com (domains) and the strap on her top broke, in effect, the were making a play on what happened last year. Anyway, you don't see anything obviously except for this hottie talking to the council. I liked it....
I read on Monday that the ad was also supposed to run during the 2 minute warning at the end of the game but the NFL, after seeing it once, told Fox to pull it. This crap is making me sick.
There was also a truck commercial for the Lincoln Mark LT that was to air during the Superbowl that showed a priest admiring the truck.
The ad had big time sexual overtones and even showed the priest running his hands along the surface of the truck.
Needless to say, it was yanked.
GO HERE TO READ MORE (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6903469)
Post Edited (02-12-05 22:11)
Hey JohnL! You stole my post as I was writing it dammit all! Actually, that's pretty funny.
Hey Ash, you back for good or just posting for tonight?
>Hey JohnL! You stole my post as I was writing it dammit all! Actually, that's pretty
>funny.
Yeah,. I noticed that. :)
BTW, you can download both versions of the commercial, both aired and the longer web-only version, in WMV, MOV and MP4 (Mpeg4) here;
Go Daddy Superbowl ad (http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/superbowl05/landing.asp?isc=bpshdr001)
To download it rather than viewing it online, click the Download This Ad on the bottom left. Fill out the requested info (nothing personal) and you should end up at a download link. Right-click & save.
Thanks, already did that last Monday.
A very famous Beatles poster was recently airbrushed to remove a cigarette from Paul's right hand. The poster, you ask? None other than that of Abbey Road. The fools have no respect for artistic integrity. DAMN FOOLS. All of them. Whoever you are. YOU'RE ALL FOOLS.
hrmphh.....
Already mentioned the KFC one. Taking out the joke about the old lady with the bucket on her head just rendered the rest of the commercial pointless. But the effort they put into changing it was staggering. It looked like they actually edited the bucket right off her head in the long shot (nice happy family of food hoarders). Of course, now you just wonder why Grandma isn't important enough to have a part in the commercial. I bet the guys who put so much trouble into writing and producing a commercial (one that is actually funny, and that people like) just want to cry when this happens.
The one that always struck me as really stupid was a car commercial from years ago. It's all done from a dog's point of view as he rides in the vehicle, narrated with his thoughts. At one point, a cat runs across the road, and the dog, being a dog, says "Hit that cat! Hit that cat! Darned anti-lock brakes." It's cute, and it's funny, and it really wasn't a big part of the commercial. But, a couple of weeks later, the line became "Watch that cat! Watch that cat! Hmmm, anti-lock brakes (admiringly)." It doesn't make sense, it's out of character, and it just sounds dumb. But what really got me was that somebody was actually enough of a tightass to be offended by such a little thing as a dog wanting (just wanting, mind you) to hurt a cat, and obviously had nothing better to do than b***h and whine. And somebody else was spineless enough to change it. Makes you wonder what kind of tactics are used by the bleeding hearts behind this stuff.
Post Edited (02-14-05 12:26)
Just the other day I had the radio on and the Steve Miller "Jet Airliner" song comes on. One of the lines is "That I don’t want to get caught up in any of that
Funky s**t goin’ down in the city". Now I've heard that full line, including s**t on the radio since the song came out in 1977. Of course this time they blatanly substituted another word (stuff?) in place of s**t. It's been this way for 25 years and now someone has to go and muck it up. Grrrr. What's next are they going to wreck Pink Floyd's "Money", with "that do goody good bulls**t"? Bastards.
I've heard the song plenty of times with "funky kicks" instead. Ridiculous.
The version on Steve Miller's Greatest Hits had "funky kicks." That's the only version I can remember.
Huh, I'd swear that my LP has funky s**t. Time to fire up the old turntable.
the lyrics has s**t but I always hear kicks maybe Steve Miller just got very very very very confused by how awful our american dialect is?
Yeah, Raj is right. The original lyrics are "funky s**t going down in the city", just heard it this morning on the way to work.
It really really amazes me at what stupid s**t people are getting upset over. I can vaguely understand the Janet Jackson thing, but these commercials are not offensive. I don't want to get too political, but it seems that we are moving towards a more tight assed America since W. has been in office. I have no problem with people trying to better their morals, but I do have a problem with everyone ready to b***h as soon as something tiny occurs.
I'm sure that 85-90% of America feels this same way. It's just the small percentage that has to screw everything up.
I'd be more likely to blame most of this censorship on the left than on the right. The sort of enforced sensitivity that would not let us have even a small laugh at anyone's expense, that's been around longer than Dubya has been president, and it comes from the other end of the political spectrum. And I'd say it's probably worse in Canada, where we're all just such caring people (or so we've been told by the folks ruining the country).
If you're just referring to the song lyrics, I'd say that the rules are getting looser there, not tighter.
that one commercial for those gel inserts got changed from like a felon to like magellan.
I can think of a good one, a few years back they had a commercial for Nintendo where the point was they were advertising how several of the games had dropped in prices. Anyway, the commerical starts we see the side view of a young boy (about 12 or so I'd guess) standing in a doorway. We hear his father's voice (off camera) and he's saying stuff like, "Son, there comes a time in every man's life when he must learn about trust and responsibility, about when it's best to speak up and when it's best to remain quiet."
Camera cuts to inside the room and the dad is dressed up in women's clothes a la Rocky Horror Picture Show (albeit without make-up) and he says, "In other words son, how much for you not to tell you mother you saw this?"
Well, that commercial only aired like once then they aired it again, only this time the dad was dressed in a clow suit (WTF?) I'm guessing the orginial concept was dropped.
Both versions of that Steve Miller song have played on radio stations for years.
I presume he did two versions. It's nothing recent.
Both versions of that Steve Miller song have played on radio stations for years.
I presume he did two versions. It's nothing recent.
Same with Charlie Daniel's "The Devil Went Down To Georgia". Two recordings.
I didn't know what the fuss about the GoDaddy.com commercials was ( I read they didn't play the second a few days later) but I remember turning to my wife after it played and saying "well that was stupid" It really looked like an ad dreamed up by geeks at a dot com who thought they were being funny and sexy or something; it tried so hard to be cool but really wasn't, regardless of the nature of the content
>I didn't know what the fuss about the GoDaddy.com commercials was ( I read
>they didn't play the second a few days later) but I remember turning to my wife
>after it played and saying "well that was stupid" It really looked like an ad
>dreamed up by geeks at a dot com who thought they were being funny and sexy
>or something; it tried so hard to be cool but really wasn't, regardless of the nature
>of the content
The longer version had a couple of funny lines. Near the end, the woman on the committee says "Secure her, we don't want any accidents" and the guy next to her mutters "I think I just had one..." and leaves the meeting. As it fades out you hear the woman say "Those are not real...".
The other night I saw a commercial that probably won't stay on the air very long. It was an animated ad for Red Bull where a wife tells her husband that her mother is coming for a visit. The husband then imagines several different ways of killing her before settling on giving her a Red Bull so that she'll grow wings and fly away.
Post Edited (02-18-05 07:40)
Not too sure about this one, but I have to ask:
I saw a clip of an Xbox ad which was apparently banned [or at least pulled till a later date] simply because it was deemed too loud and 'kinda frightening' for a post 9/11 audience [it was supposed to air shortly afterwards]. Since I don't see these ads because I am in a different country, I'd like to know if it ever ran in the US:
The Ad basically has a kid being born, and he pops out of his mother, straight out the window and is flying through the sky. The baby is crying, and bit by bit the baby gets older and older, until he becomes a boy, where he starts screaming "Aaaaah" [as in aaaah, I'm flying through the sky, this is quite terrifying!]
He gets older and older until, when he is an old man, he lands, right in an empty, freshly-dug grave. Then accompanied by a tagline similar to, but not exactly, 'Xbox, live life to the fullest" [not exact quote but I can't quite remember it]
I thought this ad was really well done, so I was just wondering whether I was misled as to its condition, or whether it was actually banned for the reasons I stated earlier.
Just curious.