Monday, October 28, 2013

CougarLife Advert Too Violent: Image Management?

I check AdWeek pretty religiously for funny, interesting, entertaining advertisements and to catch up on the latest ad-related news. I came across this article talking about cougarlife.com. I’ve seen the commercial a billion times on television and every time I laugh. There’s a woman walking around a bar talking about younger woman being self-involved, clingy, and cheap (basically). The ad is for the dating website in which younger men can find cougars.
            This ad has been playing for sometime now, however it made AdWeek news because apparently it’s offensive…in the Australia. Really Australia, really? Apparently the ad is “too violent” because the cougar woman pushes younger women. Additionally, a woman said the ad was offensive because “it depicts an older women inferring that the men in the ad would be better 'taken care of' by her, rather than the younger women. It seemed to suggest that she would be a better 'mate' for the men in the ad than the younger women”. This consumer’s comment is hilarious. It’s a “Duhhh” moment. That’s exactly what the ad is inferring. The older actress says it. She says older woman know what they want and younger girls don’t. Watch the ad and ask yourselves the question, is this ad offensive to me?

Australia banned the advertisement citing it was too violent. The reason I wanted to discuss this ad was because I wanted to talk about what are some possible ways CougarLife can redeem itself in Australia. Personally, I find the ad funny. But the fact of the matter is Australia banned the advert and although the company would probably like to respond to the consumer’s comment with a giant “DUHHHH”, as a company they cannot. So my question is what are some ways CougarLife can do image management in Australia?     

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Ad is included in this link as well

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