"Sexist" bus adverts cause uproar in Cardiff and on Twitter!

[Greenback]

I'd just like to make a few quick observations.

Just because something is funny doesn't mean it's appropriate
The offence here seems to be more about the connotations of the wording rather than what can be seen in the photographs
Perhaps the company wanted to create a bit of a fuss in order to maximise publicity. If that was the brief to the ad agency, the latter has provided exactly what was requested!

 

[jon0844]

Surely it's no worse than the many adult jokes and innuendo put into kids films for the benefit of the parents, which goes over the head of the child (until they're much older). Take the fans 'flashing' Lightning McQueen in Cars 1 (using their headlights). Was that offensive because adults knew what it symbolised?

There are countless other examples.

 

[adey2011]

Another case of the way this country is trying to strangle itself with PC, get a life!

 

[Starmill]

Regardless of how much opinion varies about how actually appropriate this was or not, I really wonder who came up with that and thought that it could possibly be a good idea in today's world! Crazy! They just have no sense of tact at all!? And these people are supposed to work in marketing!?

 

[HilversumNS]

As Michael O'Leary would say "There is no such thing as bad publicity"

 

[jon0844]

As Michael O'Leary would say "There is no such thing as bad publicity"

Except eventually even he realised he needed to shut up!

 

[Antman]

Regardless of how much opinion varies about how actually appropriate this was or not, I really wonder who came up with that and thought that it could possibly be a good idea in today's world! Crazy! They just have no sense of tact at all!? And these people are supposed to work in marketing!?

And they're doing a pretty good job in marketing...............loads of free publicity!

There is a pretty lady advertising the fact that you can ride the bus all day for £3, if anybody wants to read anything else into it...............!!

 

[455driver]

I wonder if there would have been such an outrage if it was some fat ugly bird and a bloke that looked like Compo off last of the summer wine?

Maybe those who are outraged feel inferior to the people in the advert in some way?
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There is a pretty lady advertising the fact that you can ride with bus all day for £3, if anybody wants to read anything else into it...............!!

I agree, its more a question of what they read into it rather than what is actually written!

maybe they need to go and get a bit so they can lose some of their frustration?

 

[Greenback]

And they're doing a pretty good job in marketing...............loads of free publicity!

There is a pretty lady advertising the fact that you can ride the bus all day for £3, if anybody wants to read anything else into it...............!!

If the advert had said 'ride this bus' instead of 'ride me' then I doubt that the fuss would have been as big as it was.

 

[DaveHarries]

A short thought here. I asked a female colleague at work this morning if she had heard about the adverts and the controversy over them. She said she had and didn't find them offensive in the least.

Dave

 

[Tetchytyke]

Maybe those who are outraged feel inferior to the people in the advert in some way?

Nah, my breasts are far nicer than hers.

The innuendo didn't bother me, it was the pointless and gratuitous nudity that bothered me. As I said, I'm sick of having to explain to my daughter why that lady has no clothes on, whether it's this sort of crap or whether it is the adverts for stripclubs (and no, I don't mean calling cards in phone boxes, I mean billboards) plastered everywhere in Newcastle. If the women had actually been wearing clothes I probably wouldn't care.

I'm no prude, but really, this advert's the sort of rubbish you'd expect from someone who thinks The Lad Bible is the Archbishop of Banterbury.

Also the plural of anecdote is not data; I know plenty of my friends are offended by this sort of thing. I'm not offended, my reaction is more "oh for goodness sake", but whoever thought that was a good advertising campaign for a bus is a weapons-grade idiot.

 

[Qwerty133]

I'm no prude, but really, this advert's the sort of rubbish you'd expect from someone who thinks The Lad Bible is the Archbishop of Banterbury.

And that's who this advert was aimed at, so you could say it was a marketing team who know their target audience...

 

[swj99]

Different people feel offended by different things. The danger is, if we ban something every time someone complains about it, then eventually there will be nothing left, and people will have to just sit quietly at home, being inoffensive and pc, until they die of boredom or get selected as the next specimen on a reality tv show.

Alternatively, people could just stop whingeing and get a life.

 

[Tetchytyke]

if we ban something every time someone complains about it

Nobody has banned anything though?

NAT took a commercial decision that the hassle of people complaining wasn't worth it. Other companies, like the protein-peddling charlatans on the tube, decided the hassle was worth it.

Those complaining about people complaining should also "get a life", according to your logic.