Seth Stevenson of Slate offers some choices.

Have you seen the advertisement for the new chocolate-flavored Altoids that features an explosion—presumably, a symbolic explosion of flavor—in the shape of a mushroom cloud? Of course I'm biased here, having been born and raised in Japan, but I find this advertisement extremely offensive and callous to the millions affected by the bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in WWII, which I perceive as something akin to genocide, two times over. What do you think? Am I wrong in thinking these ads should be withdrawn?
—K.O.

You don't have to look very far to find ads exploiting various tragedies. Last year's Chevy "This Is Our Country" spot was a twofer, with both 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina references. (By the way, I despised that ad.)

I understand how this Altoids spot could be offensive to some, but personally I don't have a huge problem with it. There's no specificity to the reference. I've actually visited Hiroshima and the Peace Memorial Museum, and I'm a little bit sensitized to the horrors that occurred there. But I've also seen lots of footage of random test detonations (like the ones at the end of Dr. Strangelove), so I don't necessarily connect an image of a mushroom cloud directly to the devastation that afflicted Japan.

Now, if the ad had shown people's eyeballs melting out, and the skin sloughing off their arms as they shrieked in ecstasy at the chocolate-y Altoids flavor ... that might have been offensive.

Personally, I've got a two-ad campaign that just annoys the crap out of me. Jack in the Box. Angus. 'Nuff said.

Posted by: Greg at 04:00 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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