16689: It Is Racism, It Is WTF BS.

 

Estimado in Spain is responsible for this anti-racist campaign for the Ministry of Equality that is explained as follows:

 

It Is Racism, is a campaign that aims to give voice to people who suffer racial discrimination more assiduously, showing situations of racism and seeking identification and solidarity with the victims.

 

01. The Challenge

 

Creation of a Social Awareness campaign against racism and racial discrimination.

 

With this action we seek to raise awareness towards a message that highlights the fact that many racist excuses are racism.

 

02. Strategy and idea

 

Creation of a campaign to disseminate and raise awareness about explicit and more normalized racism to society as a whole.

 

“I’m not racist, BUUUUUUUT....”, formed by different creative pieces, seeks to highlight what is really hidden behind every “but” and that in many occasions, it is nothing more than a racist attitude. A campaign that allows to label and make visible some attitudes that not all society has established as racism, but that can lead to a real racial discrimination based on the contempt of a person or group of people and that, consequently, means a real difference in treatment towards those who suffer it.
The campaign aims to make visible both situations of the act, empathizing with the victim and the aggressor’s excuse, through 5 different situations in the field of housing, education, health, commerce and employment.

 

In the process of creating the campaign, neurocommunication techniques have been applied in the agency’s own laboratory in conjunction with the Polytechnic University of Valencia. Applying this technique as a pre-test in the creation process, the campaign has been optimized to generate high attention and high interest and focused on provoking the emotions of contempt and anger, emotional activation necessary to get involved in the social cause. The result, measured with neurocommunication biometrics, corrected possible deviations from the objective, not detected in the usual pre-test, improving objectivity and creative effectiveness.

 

03. Execution

 

A real narrative that reflects everyday scenes, the campaign is an appeal to people who suffer from racism, as well as to society in general, to identify and report these situations to the existing service of assistance to victims of racial discrimination.

 

Don’t mean to be critical, BUUUUUUUT… the concept description demonstrates overthinking can lead to underwhelming nonsense.

15507: Hungry And Homophobic? Grab A Snickers.

 

Advertising Age reported Snickers was forced to pull an advertisement—created by Contrapunto BBDO Madrid—after receiving accusations of homophobia. Somewhere, Bob Garfield is punching a hole in a wall.

 

Snickers Pulls Ad From Spain After Accusations Of Homophobia

 

The ad for Snickers Ice Cream draws rebuke from LGTBQ groups

 

By Sydney Gold

 

Snickers has pulled an ad for its ice cream bars in Spain after facing accusations of homophobia, a public misstep by the brand in its long-running “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” campaign.

 

The online spot was removed amid backlash from consumers across Spain, The Guardian reported today. The spot features Spanish influencer Aless Gibaja ordering at a restaurant, wearing pink and behaving stereotypically feminine. The waiter looks back, puzzled, and hands Gibaja a Snickers Ice Cream bar. Suddenly, the influencer transforms into a bearded man, before the tagline appears: You’re not you when you’re hungry (No Eres Tu Cuando Tienes Hambre). The ad was produced by Contrapunto BBDO Madrid.

 

Snickers apologized in a statement: “We would like to wholeheartedly apologize for any harm caused by a recent advert for Snickers Ice Cream in Spain. We recognize that we got it wrong and have removed the online content immediately,” the brand announced.

 

Mike Wilke, founder of AdRespect.org, a website intended to provide guidance to corporations on LGBTQ stereotypes, homophobia and transphobia, criticized the ad. “The way I have assessed things through the years is to look at where is the humor? What are we supposed to be laughing at? And in this ad, we’re supposed to be laughing at how much of a sissy this guy is,” he says.

 

The ad also drew critical coverage on the website LGBTQnation.com, which cited criticism from the Spanish LGBTQ organization Federación Estatal LGTB, which called the ad “shameful and pitiful,” and tweeted: “If you need some training for your next try, we’re here,” according to the report.

 

Several of Snickers advertisements play with the theme of being out of place, as part of the brand’s successful “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” campaign. Snickers, says Wilke, has been walking “a fine line” in several of its ads that deal with gender as a joke, including a 2018 ad featuring Elton John and a 2016 Super Bowl ad starring Willem DeFoe.

 

“In all of the cases, they’re sort of walking a fine line of, you know you know, the dude looks like a lady,” says Wilke.

 

Still, Wilke says, “I think those do better than this last one from Spain.”

 

It’s not the first time Snickers has been accused of homophobia. A 2008 ad played brazenly into gender stereotypes, as Mr. T shoots Snickers at a feminine speed walker in neon booty shorts. The celebrity shouts “Speed walking? I pity you, fool! You’re a disgrace to the man race!” before pelting him with candy bars from an armed pickup truck. In the end, the tagline flashes: “get some nuts.” And in 2007, Snickers faced backlash for a Super Bowl ad where two men are repulsed after kissing each other.

 

Despite these controversial advertisements, Snickers parent company Mars received the highest possible score on Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2021 corporate equality index, which specifically quantifies LGBTQ workplace equity. Another Mars brand, Skittles, has partnered with the organization GLAAD, which focuses on media portrayals and coverage of LGBTQ people.

15318: Halls Hoarse Manure.

This Halls campaign from Spain is a bored game.

15199: Oily Guy For Pond’s Men.

DAVID in Madrid, Spain, is responsible for this Pond’s Men commercial. The main character’s actions are not only disgusting, but in these times, might be categorized as sexual harassment. Oh, and what’s with the all-Asian casting for Spain?

 

14810: KFC Campaign From Spain Should Rest In Piece—12-Piece Bucket, That Is.

Okay, if Día de los Muertos Barbie was controversial, why did KFC in Spain think it was cool to run this Day of the Dead campaign? Would it not have been more appropriate to honor the dead Colonel?

14628: Smartphone Campaign Is Not Smart. M&C Saatchi Is Definitely Not Smart.

The morons at M&C Saatchi in Spain probably think this campaign for the HUAWEI P30 Pro smartphone is provocative and breakthrough, but it looks like perverts are using their mobile devices to secretly photograph breastfeeding moms.

14574: Is DHL Serving As A Mule For Drug Cartels?

Is this campaign related to Spain returning pre-Colombian artifacts seized from drug cartels? If so, it feels kinda disrespectful to send the stuff back via DHL. Hell, it might have been better to ask Leo Sharp to handle the transport.

13867: Gustavo Gusto.

Adweek reported ex-JWT Worldwide Chairman and CEO Gustavo Martinez is serving as country manager for WPP Spain. Meanwhile, Erin Johnson is sitting in a cubicle outside of the HR Director’s office. So now who’s getting raped—and not in a nice way?

Former JWT CEO Gustavo Martinez Is Leading WPP’s Operations in Spain as Sexual Harassment Case Against Him Proceeds

Ousted leader is overseeing a country-wide reorganization

By Patrick Coffee

This week, Gustavo Martinez made his first public appearance as the leader of WPP’s operations in Spain more than 18 months after stepping down from his role as global CEO and chairman of J. Walter Thompson amid a sexual harassment and discrimination suit filed by that agency’s global head of public relations, Erin Johnson.

According to a report published in the Spanish trade journal Dircomfidencial, Martinez spoke Wednesday on behalf of the holding group at Orbit, an event organized by the Barcelona offices of WPP-owned firms Hill+Knowlton and SCPF.

Martinez spoke about newfound competition from international consultancies like Deloitte and Accenture. A translation of his comments reads, “When I started in this sector, PwC, Arthur Andersen and Accenture were auditors; today they are my competitors. Before, people like Google were providers; today, my boss Sir Martin Sorrell calls them ‘frenemies.’ But I think they are less friends and more enemies.”

The report also states that Martinez has served as country manager of WPP Spain since being promoted in January.

The report may conflict with claims made last week by Martinez’s law firm Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, which stated in a Manhattan federal court filing that Martinez has been working for WPP on an “ad hoc” basis in an unspecified role since leaving JWT in March 2016 “following his discussions with Sir Martin Sorrell when [Johnson’s] litigation was filed.”

During Wednesday’s event, Martinez also revealed that he is overseeing a reorganization of WPP’s operations in Spain. “We are re-creating the company itself,” he said, adding, “We can no longer do silos or separate business units.”

WPP and Sorrell have largely stood behind Martinez in the wake of a suit that accused him of “an unending stream of racist and sexist comments” that allegedly made Johnson’s job running global communications for JWT “virtually impossible.” He and his lawyers have denied each of the specific claims in the suit filed by the law firm of Vladeck, Raskin & Clark with two exceptions. In April, Johnson’s team submitted a video of the former CEO joking about being “raped … and not in the nice way” at a 2015 company meeting in Miami. The previous month, former Campaign editor in chief Douglas Quenqua confirmed that Martinez had said he and his wife moved out of New York’s Westchester County because it had “too many Jews.”

Johnson’s lawyers have repeatedly requested that Martinez return to New York for continued depositions and provide more information about his current compensation as a WPP employee. They have also implied that, by continuing to employ Martinez, the holding group is effectively condoning the behavior of which he’s been accused. The Martinez team countered those claims last week. “[Johnson’s] argument that Defendant Martinez’s continued compensation evidences [WPP’s] failure to remediate or prevent sexual harassment is baseless,” its filing read, because he “ended his employment with JWT … and left the country.”

The document also stated that his current compensation is irrelevant since he no longer receives bonuses and other benefits that he earned as CEO and chairman of JWT, even though he is “paid the same base rate” by WPP.

In a filing last Friday, the Johnson team argued that the law firm of Davis & Clark, which represents the larger WPP organization, has attempted to slow the case to a near-standstill by declining to make Sorrell available for the requisite seven hours of depositions, stating that he is “too important and too busy” and “refus[ing] to produce him” even after Sorrell himself “agreed without hesitation to continue at a later date.”

They also pointed to last week’s scheduled deposition with JWT chief talent officer Laura Agostini, which was canceled with “virtually no notice” after the team’s own legal counsel “decided to take the day off.”

A WPP spokesperson has not yet responded to requests for comment today.

12294: Volunteer Visitors Earn Prizes…?

This campaign from Spain encourages young people to volunteer to visit the elderly. But it seems to put a lot of pressure on the elderly, implying their gratitude will include preparing elaborate gifts for the visitors—which is actually counter to the notion of volunteerism.

From Ads of the World.

11186: This Is How We Roll.

This is how they sell rolling papers in Spain.

From Ads of the World.

9119: More Eye-Rolling Idiocy From Brazil.

Look! More cultural cluelessness from Brazil! The New York Daily News reported on FC Santos preparing for the upcoming 2011 FIFA Club World Cup in Japan by having players pose slit-eyed for a promotion. The move is barely original, last executed by Spain’s 2008 Olympic basketball teams.

Neymar and Santos teammates pose ‘slit-eyed’ for ad promoting FIFA Club World Cup in Japan

By Jaime Uribarri

Fresh off their first Copa Libertadores title in nearly 50 years, FC Santos are looking to make history yet again in December during the 2011 FIFA Club World Cup in Japan.

The storied Brazilian franchise is going all out in preparation for the event that brings together the champion clubs from all six continental confederations, and has even launched a website and promotional campaign to celebrate the competition. Pretty standard stuff, except for one questionable photo.

The image features four Santos players — including star forward Neymar up front and center — slanting their eyes in front of the Japanese Rising Sun flag painted in the team’s black and white colors. This crass reference to the tournament host nation (and its people’s physical appearance) is bound to generate controversy, if a similar picture from three years ago is any indication.

Prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Spanish basketball team sparked outrage among the Asian community after posing slit-eyed for a full-page ad that appeared in the country’s most popular sports daily, Marca. Accusations of racism from groups such as the Organization of Chinese Americans soon followed, which forced Spain’s Pau Gasol to publicly apologize on behalf of his team.

If and when Santos’ borderline racist marketing campaign gets picked up by the same advocacy groups, be sure to expect more negative backlash.