The People's Discomfort

I am a firm believer of free will.  To the extent you are not hurting anyone, you should be free to do what you want.  Urgh, this is gonna lead to a huge debate on what counts as hurt, right?  Well, that’s not the point of this article so I’m gonna avoid falling into the puddle.

And even with all the cases below, I still believe that they have the right to do what they do, except for maybe one.  However, they do make you cringe.  An obvious case would be the Pepsi commercial.  Technically, nobody got hurt, physically and arguably mentally.  If anything, our artistic sensibilities were affected the most because the advertisement was rather tasteless in terms of art.  Unfortunately, some people felt a worse taste than tasteless as the commercial had a simplistic and corporate approach to a sensitive matter.

And from time to time, you will see various companies try to chip in on mainstream issues or holidays.  And well, they don’t all work.  It’s actually quite rare to find one that does.  On his show, Last Week Tonight, John Oliver did a brilliant segment on what corporations should do to commemorate a certain sensitive day, absolutely nothing.  Whatever you say will only make things worse because you are doing what you are doing to drive your brand, sales or recognition.

But if they learned their lessons, I wouldn’t have a need to write this now would I?  Just last year, not even a full 365 days ago so it’s fairly recent, we got a fascinating advertisement for a mattress business to say the least.  And by fascinating, I mean “Oh my god…  What did you just do?!”  Have a look and see if I’m the nutty one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZmM-2gj5Gc

Yes, that actually happened.  I mean clearly she is in the wrong and she admitted to it too, removing the advertisement and crying while apologizing later on.  This isn’t like a few weeks ago where I talked about controversy driving a business.  This is black and white.  It was insensitive.  My jaws dropped open when I saw it for the first time.  And since it is not a controversy with a middle grey area, it gives people a terrible image.  Also, the curiosity is dead because it is clear what a person with a conscience feels about this advertisement.

So what about holidays?  Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand is a pretty big deal.  It is a day used to remember the sacrifices of the Australians and New Zealanders in combat, mostly for those who fought in Gallipoli during World War I.  But in the article from The New Daily titled “Why it’s time we called an end to sport on Anzac Day”, sports competitions owners use the day to promote popular sports in Australia like Australian footy and rugby.  For those of you who don’t know what footy is, as somebody who resided in Australia for 3 years, I can’t explain it to you either.

Anzac Day was mainly a day for the diggers to remember and reflect, with a couple games thrown in as complements.  But nowadays, the games have become the focus of Anzac Day.  The 1958 Anzac Day Act allowed the staging of the games as long as the diggers were acknowledged.  That may not sound too bad and it isn’t because there is the commercial revenue.  It goes back to what John Oliver said about corporations taking insensitive measures to promote their brands.  They associated their brands with Anzac Day.  To put that in perspective for us Malaysians, it is like a brand being associated with Rusuhan Kaum.  Yes, that’s pretty messed up, don’t you think?!  That won’t put me in the mood to buy their products.  I’ll associate their products with war and death.

Another thing that causes discomfort is the loss of trust.  I know that I have been focused on brands doing inappropriate things relating to issues but certain practices do make us squirm a little.  When you hear what goes on at Fox News, no matter which side of the political divide you are on, you can’t help but wonder what they do to women behind the scenes.  Plus, how long did it take you to go back to KFC after video footage of the employees performing unhygienic acts to a dead chicken.  United Airlines bears the brunt of it now with the way they treated the man.

There are also the businesses that stalk our every move.  There is an article titled “Peeping Tom Drones Prompt Calls for a Close Look at Privacy Laws” mentioned that a Victorian woman was unintentionally photographed while sunbathing topless by a drone because the drone was commissioned by a real estate company for advertising the neighborhood property.  And if that happened in Malaysia, they just sent her to jail!

I think legal action is a bit too much, except for maybe the last scenario there that talked about privacy.  But given that I extended free will to businesses to do whatever they want, I think we have the same free will to feel the way we want and react the way we want.  The irony now is that I could really use a Pepsi right about now.