GM Yields To Concern About Super Bowl Ad: Mental Health Groups Objected to Spot On Suicidal Robot

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: GM Yields To Concern About Ad
Mental Health Groups Objected to Spot On Suicidal Robot
By Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 10, 2007; Page C01


In its Super Bowl ad, GM drew criticism for trivializing suicide by having a poorly performing robot sell condos and then jump off a bridge in despair. (GM/AP)

The latest Super Bowl score: Advocacy Groups 2, Advertisers 0.

In the second capitulation by a corporate behemoth in less than a week, General Motors yesterday agreed to modify a TV commercial it aired during Sunday's Super Bowl to address complaints from interest groups.

Mental health organizations had peppered GM with protests about the ad, contending that it trivialized suicide. In the commercial set to the strains of Eric Carmen's "All by Myself," a clumsy auto factory robot throws itself off a bridge in despair after being drummed off an assembly line. GM said it would edit the ad to eliminate the bridge sequence.

The ad was the second to push the corporate sensitivity meter into the red. On Monday, a subsidiary of the candymaker Mars Inc. scrapped a commercial and related Web videos for its Snickers bars that gay rights organizations had called "homophobic." The commercial depicted two men who react cartoonishly after inadvertently kissing; the company's Web site featured an alternate ending in which the men violently beat each other.

Controversy prompted by the two ads highlights the speed with which opposition can coalesce around a perceived offense. It also suggests the flip side: how swiftly corporations can move to head off even embryonic controversy. Mars took less than a day before deciding to deep-six its ad; GM initially resisted complaints this week but decided in fewer than five days that "the issue being raised was a serious one, from a group of credible people," as company spokesman John M. McDonald put it yesterday....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/09/AR2007020902310.html

[Dr.Phool]

1. Jon Stewart nailed it right.

Where is their concern for the 50,000 human robots they's put out of work.

[Missy M]

2. Maybe this is a good thing...

soon there will be no commercials because each commercial will offend someone or some group. :thumbsup:

[rocktivity]

3. As Rachel Maddow pointed out on Paula Zahn yesterday

As if the suicide angle wasn't bad enough, GM had a bad year and was going to have to lay off more human employees! And as Jon Stewart said on The Daily Show, maybe the network censors should have worried less about the Superbowl halftime show and more about the commericials! Fart jokes, homoeroticism, violence, racism, sexism, bad taste--did ANY of them actually try to sell a product?

:headbang:
rocknation

[kingoth]

5. the beard

the beard comb over was pretty damn funny, hell I'll even say the office workers/job search engine commercials were funny too.

[jedr]

4. Beginning to believe that the purpose of a super bowl add is to;

Be controversial within being reasonable (ie. not so shocking that the FCC fines you mIllions). At the price of a super bowl add , the more bang you can get for your buck, the better.

[LiberalFighter]

7. One too many d's in ad

add is when you add a number to another number, add an addition to a house, etc.

ad is a commercial or placement in the classifieds of a newspaper

[kineneb]

6. a few comments

1. I did not see the ad, I have only read the synopsis posted here on DU. There are reasons I do not own a tv.

2. As a person who has contemplated suicide, I don't think that a such an ad is appropriate. My great-grandmother killed herself, when my grandmother was four; the act reverberates down through our family. My godchildren's father committed suicide, and they will live with the results for the rest of their lives. There should be nothing funny or entertaining about a suicide.

3. I am glad they will be cutting the segment.

[DeepModem Mom]

8. Thank you for this post, from your personal experience, kineneb. nt

[Miss Chybil]

9. My grandmother killed herself when I was 18 years old.

We were very close. My youngest son is currently in the hospital for having suicidal thoughts. I did see the ad and it made me feel bad. There is nothing funny about suicide.