Last week there was a public outcry over an ad that used an image of the London terrorist bombing and then a campaign by the Gay Police Association was accused of portraying Christians as the main group behind religion-fuelled homophobia. Has shock advertising gone too far?
The ad by the GPA, featuring a pool of blood next to a holy bible with text talking about religion-based homophobic "incidents", has resulted in the advertising watchdog receiving a record 553 complaints.
Since the ruling the GPA has remained unbowed refusing to apologise over the implications of the ad and, further, considering appealing a number of the ASA's rulings against the campaign.
"The question is would they have done it with a picture of the Koran, I don't think so, and if it isn't right to use images from religions then it must be deemed offensive to use any in this case," said ad agency McCann Erickson's EMEA president Rupert Howell, the man responsible for the famous "you've been tangoed" 'slap' ads that caused a flurry of copycat acts by children.
His view on the London bombing images by suicide charity Calm is that such a tactic seemed more like a "cry for help" from a group that can't get anyone to recognise the issue of male suicide.
James Taylor, joint MD of PR agency Taylor Herring, argues that while the bus ad was a "bridge too far" you can imagine the discussion by small organisations to use "any means necessary" to get their point across with a limited marketing budget.
Following the 7/7 bombings many newspapers were taken to task for using inappropriate and horrific images of the aftermath.
Still, Paul Shearer, the global executive creative director at Nitro, points out that although covering news is the raison d'etre for newspapers, the inclusion of shocking images still do, at the end of the day, often help drive sales.
THE GPA and Calm have certainly received mass-media awareness of their respective issues, however should the use of such tactics be condoned in advertising?
