Children's charity, Barnardo's has released its first online ad, which targets an adult audience because of its content and asks viewers to opt in prior to viewing, writes Nikki Sandison. The ad shows a boy telling adults including his parents to "f**k off". He also tells Barnardo's workers to "f**k" off but they refuse to dismiss him as a lost cause. This is not the first time that Barnardo's has used hard-hitting ads. In 2003, its press ads featuring images of babies with a syringe, cockroach and bottle of methylated spirits in their mouths, were banned by the ASA after hundreds of complaints.
At the end of last year JWT London created two ads targeting those who drink and drive at Christmas, entitled "Idiots" and "Twelve Days". "Idiots", is set in the back of a taxi and shows people with a lack of control when drunk. Scenes show differing states of drunkenness including a man vomiting and a young man picking a fight with the driver. It is set to the tune of 'Jingle Bells' and ends on the line "The real idiots drive themselves home." "Twelve Days" takes the viewers through a catalogue of injuries caused by people hitting pedestrians, but especially children, when drink driving. The carol is sung by children and changes the lyrics of 'The 12 days of Christmas' to fit in with the theme of the ad, for example: "On the 12th day of Christmas a drink driver gave to me, 12 months of traction, 11 weeks on crutches, 10 operations…"
Scare tactics are becoming increasingly popular in Asia with complaints flooding in about the latest anti-smoking campaign from the Health Promotion Board. In one spot a young woman with bloody, cracked lips and gums gives a hoarse testimonial of life with oral cancer. Palani Pilai, Crush Advertising chief executive officer, who helmed one of the HPB's early anti-smoking campaigns said: "In order for them to work, they need to be effectively scary to do the job. Quite a few scare tactics have failed because they failed to go the whole hog."