ARE YOU AN out-of-work mime considering a job in a fast food restaurant?
Don’t: that’s the advice Rabo Direct would give to you. Not everyone is happy with their stance, however.
The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) received two complaints about the bank’s TD advert which shows parents who regret sending their son to “any college” when he ends up becoming a mime working in a takeaway.
Both complainants thought the advertisement was offensive to fast food workers. One complainant considered the advertisement racist towards the fast food worker.
They also considered it “snobbish and insulting” as they don’t consider anything wrong with such a job.
Rabo Direct said it was ”surprised and sorry to hear that people had found their advertisement to be mocking and distasteful as it was not their intention to upset anyone”.
The bank stated that the ad attempted to highlight that “spending a significant amount of money to send your child to a clearly expensive college to become a mime artist, and then, as a mime artist to get a job in a fast food take away restaurant was a bad idea”.
They said that mime artists don’t speak and make their career out of pretending to be in a glass box, so they therefore felt it would be “humorous to put a mime artist in an actual glass box with a head set on”. They also stated that they did not consider that the advertisement was racist in any way and were unsure how it could be interpreted as such.
The complaint was not upheld by the ASAI.
But Astras DO break down
Another man complained about the General Motors ad in which Claudia Schiffer claims Opel Astras never break down. The man said he had owned an Astra and it had broken down on a number of occasions. The complaint was not upheld.
A complaint against an ad for the Lotto was also dismissed. The ad in question shows a woman on a beach telling her boss she can’t come into work due to “women’s problems”.
The complainant said it was inappropriate that the advertisement made a joke out of women who women who are “struggling to get equality in the workplace while also trying to deal with issues such as ‘women’s problems’”.
She thought the ad “was putting doubt into other minds that such problems were being used as an excuse to take time off work”.
In response, the National Lottery said it was their intention that “the humour of the situation was derived from the male character’s discomfort and Claire’s knowledge that she could provoke such discomfort and therefore, the joke was on him”.
Complaints made against a number of other groups such as Pigsback, Supervalu and TG4 were also not upheld.
Dunnes Stores
The ASAI upheld complaints made against four companies – Dunnes Stores, Less Stress, Argos and Map Travel.
A woman made a complaint after she spent €100 in Dunnes Stores and, instead of receiving €20 vouchers, was informed that the shop had stopped giving out the vouchers the previous Thursday. She said this fact had not been referenced anywhere in the advertising and therefore she had been misled.
Dunnes Stores did not respond when the ASAI looked into the incident.
‘Geopathic Stress’
The ASAI also upheld a complaint against Less Stress for a newspaper article that claimed ’Geopathic Stress’ could be the cause of anxiety and sleeping difficulties.
The complainant argued that there is ”no scientific basis or evidence to support” the claim that ‘Geopathic Stress’ exists
Meanwhile, a complaint was upheld against Argos as they advertised a “stylish Bush 28 Inch HD ready Saorview LED TV” that was not in stock in Ireland over a four-month period when a customer tried to purchase it on a number of occasions.
A woman successfully argued that an ad for a Holy Land Pilgrimage in Map Travel was misleading as the cost didn’t include €250 payable in taxes.
The ASAI’s most recent complaints bulletin is available in full on the organisation’s website.
Originally published: 12.51
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