Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Truth > offensiveness?

On CokeZero ads being complained about.. (from Ad industry press)
Another, with the strap "Girlfriends without a five-year plan", sparked complaints that it was offensive because it implied that all women want to do is settle down.
How is that offensive?? Who on Earth has the time and inclination to take offense at that?

Draw the Prophet with a bomb as a head - ok that's offensive.

"You started it"
"No I did not start it"
"Yes you did, you invaded Poland" - that's offensive.

The problem with all the above.. is that they're all true. Sometimes the truth is offensive. It still needs saying sometimes..

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ha ha I can't believe there have been complaints about the 5 year plan advert. I hope they don't take it off. It shows again that some people will get offended by anything, but how much should society accommodate them? Where do you draw the line on free speech? Maybe when you tar all muslims with the same brush as the 9/11 murderers? It only takes one person believing it to make it true.

Pharkie said...

I think the key thing is that people shouldn't be protected in law from being offended. If they're adults, they should learn to deal with it.

I don't think you could tar all muslims with ANY brush. There are Sunnis and Shi'ites - and Islamist ones and secular ones - and liberal ones and fundamentalist ones.

It's the very idea that there are 'Muslims' that creates the problem - the category is too general and simplistic to be useful?