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Calling All Gnomes
Despite the mass of accumulated evidence that drinking alcohol does, in fact, make people more attractive, Britain's Advertising Standards Authority has recently issued an edict that alcohol companies have to stop using hot models in their ads:
Drinks companies have been ordered to hire uglier men for their advertisements in Britain, to avoid suggesting there is a link between boozing and sexual success.
Men who star in alcohol ads that target women should be "balding" and "paunchy" rather than "attractive and desirable", according to guidance issued by the Advertising Standards Authority.
It is a stupid rule to begin with, but it gets much stupider when you read the rest of their logic when analyzing a specific ad in which an attractive guy is surrounded by women:
"In its current form we consider that the ad is in danger of implying that the drink may bring sexual/social success, because the man in question looks quite attractive and desirable to the girls. If the man was clearly unattractive, we think that this implication would be removed from the ad."
So ... because the man is attractive, they are worried that the alcohol will get too much credit, but if he were really ugly people would assume that he was a scintillating conversationalist?
Anyway, I have to get to England immediately. This could be my big break.
Posted by Charles Star on 07/27/2005 | Permalink
Comments
won't this somehow backfire? Won't putting some ugly bald fat git in a drinks ad who's there chatting up the girls actually convey the idea that if you are a fat bald ugly git and you drink X brand stout you will be a catch for hot models?
Posted by: chloe | Jul 27, 2005 4:21:23 PM
You mean that women DON'T find beer guts, oyster eyes, beer breath, and gaseous tummy issues attractive; as implied by the positioning of bikini clad twins in proximity to Coors Light logos in their ads?
Posted by: WisdomWeasel | Jul 28, 2005 9:25:33 AM



