[wordup] Top 10 Ads which will never be seen in the US

[Adam Shand]

Neither Simon or I have seen the NZ one but it does seem to fit the 
trend of the nasty "XXX is bad for you" commercials that the NZ public 
is so fond of.  Ugg.

Adam.

Via: Simon Horsburgh
From: http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=39422

Mr. Kipling's Virgin Birth and Other Not-for-the-USA Fare
December 22, 2003
QwikFIND ID: AAP23T
By Laurel Wentz

Mr. Kipling's Virgin Birth
Saatchi & Saatchi, London, adds holiday spirit to the latest spot in 
which a fictitious Mr. Kipling is forgiven mistakes because Mr. Kipling 
Cakes are so delicious. A woman playing Mary in a school nativity play 
goes into genuine, agonizing labor and gives birth on stage. A shocked 
parent asks the vicar: "Has Mr. Kipling ever directed a Nativity play 
before?" The vicar says, "No, but he does make exceedingly good cakes." 
The British public so railed against this spot as "blasphemous" and 
"offensive that it was pulled from the air."

Gucci's G Spot
Gucci went for the G-spot in double-page ads, created in-house for 
European editions of Vogue, showing model Louise Pedersen displaying 
her pubic hair shaved into the letter G as a man kneels before her. 
"The G-spot is the ultimate in branding," Gucci's then creative 
director, Tom Ford, told the U.K. press. "I even considered selling a 
Gucci waxing kit in the stores."

Anti-Drug Mutilation
The Partnership for a Drug-Free America produces tame stuff compared to 
this nauseating Saatchi & Saatchi, Auckland, anti-drug spot for Care 
New Zealand. A young man out clubbing digs his fingers into his skull, 
peels back his own cranium, and extracts a chunk of what's still left 
of his exposed brain. He chops up the bloody grey matter with a credit 
card and snorts the bloody pulp.

Smith's Beer
John Smith's wildly popular U.K. beer spots by TBWA star well-known 
comedian Peter Kay as an overweight, useless parent who uses a sausage 
and a beer glass to illustrate the facts of life. Only a U.K. marketer 
would endorse such a loser as a brand spokesman -- and let him explain 
sex explicitly to a 4-year-old.

Upside Down Journalism
In a blurring of editorial and advertising content common in some 
countries, MindShare negotiated with Singapore's No. 2 newspaper to 
promote the launch of Gillette's Mach 3 Turbo razor by printing the 
daily's front page in reverse to convey the brand message of "No up or 
down" and writing an editorial about the world "becoming upside down."

Cockroach Woman
Americans aren't zen enough to relate to the plight of the Thai woman 
who is in denial about her reincarnation as a cockroach. Too late. If 
only she had bought Osram's Sylvania "monk packs" of light bulbs, which 
include a donation to Buddhist monks and temples, and avoided the bad 
karma of being reincarnated as a lesser being. The spot is by Saatchi & 
Saatchi, Bangkok.

Rainbow Feet
It takes a casual but fashion-conscious tropical country like Brazil to 
promote inexpensive rubber flip-flops as informal evening wear, the 
latest use for the ubiquitous, brightly colored footwear that 
Brazilians already wear to the beach and while shopping. The 
multicolored print ads for Havaianas are by Almap BBDO, Sao Paulo.

Wordless Skin Mag
In a burst of honesty, the Filipino edition of men's magazine FHM 
admitted in a print campaign: "We're not sure why we bother with the 
words." That strapline ran above mock magazine covers with dummy text 
like "Blah blah blah" around the scantily-clad models. BBDO Guerrero 
Ortega, Manila, did the ads for FHM's Philippine publisher, Summit.

Won't Work Here
Although it was wildly popular throughout ad agency creative 
departments, Honda U.K.'s two-minute "Cog" commercial will not be seen 
by U.S. audiences. A U.S. Honda executive acknowledged the Wieden & 
Kennedy, London, spot was "cute as a button," but said it wouldn't work 
in America, due to lack of product benefits and the high cost of 120 
seconds of airtime.

U.S. Actors in Japan
American actors cash in by making ads in foreign countries, especially 
Japan, touting products they would never promote in the U.S., with the 
contractual stipulation that the commercials never be seen in this 
country. But now the japander Web site specializes in showing such ads.