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Award-Winning Ad Taken Off Air In Australia
bol_kernal writes "An award-winning advertisement on Australian TV for the new Hyundai 4WD has been pulled from being broadcast after stations received 80 complaints from concerned parents. The ad consists of a small child, age around 2 years, cruising down the road, window down, arm out the window, in his new Hyundai 4WD. He sees a girl of the same age standing on the side of the road, pulls over picks her up, and they go to the beach together. All in all it's cute, funny, and very well done. The ad aired late in the evening (8:30 pm or later), but it was pulled due to concern from parents about the copycat risk. What I want to know is, where has the responsibility of parents gone? Is the world becoming so serious — or so frightened — that fantasy is no longer allowed?"
Geezus, we even had folks complaining about a *robot* who had a *nightmare* about suicide.
It wasn't sweet, or cute, it was disturbing, and wrong on so many levels... (apparently small, unnaturaly placed children disturb me)
You can learn a lot about a person if you just take the time to inject them with sodium pentathol
Hypothesizing about fantasy amounts to fantasizing! I move to have this story removed from /. Sign below.
In case you hadn't noticed, Australia is a de facto state of the USA now.
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PGP Key ID 0xCB8FF658
Is the world becoming so serious -- or so frightened -- that fantasy is no longer allowed?"
With one caveat. If it involves wealthy actors who play married hitmen trying to kill each other with everything from knives to rocket launchers, it's ok. Same thing with movies depicting armies systematically destroying each other with machine guns, bombs, flamethrowers, etc. Basically, the bigger the magnitude of the killing, destruction, and carnage, the more acceptable. The smaller the scale, the more freaked out people get.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Here's the ad on Youtube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=g37Z8Scbj8E
I always wondered where all the Bush voters came from.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
All in all it's cute, funny, and very well done. The ad aired late in the evening (8:30 pm or later), but it was pulled due to concern from parents about the copycat risk. What I want to know is, where has the responsibility of parents gone? Is the world becoming so serious -- or so frightened -- that fantasy is no longer allowed?"
Let me preface this by saying that I am a conservative Christian. Now, I have done some research and found out that most electronic devices that emit photons and audio waves have a switch which allows me to turn them off. The effort required to do that is even less than it is for me to get incensed and make a complaint. Why don't other people get this? Don't want to see it? Turn it off. Don't want the kids to see it? Turn it off.
Don't give those crazy 2-year-olds any ideas!
___
If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
How on earth is a toddler going to reach the accelerator and brake pedals in any regular car, let alone a 4WD, whilst being strapped in to the driver's seat, especially given there's no way he could have been able to see over the dash board without sitting on a cushion or something?
People getting scared, frightened about the most innocent things.
There is a saying I've heard many a time: HARDEN THE FUCK UP. Seriously, if people keep raising hell about such trivial matters, soon there won't be any imagination, any creativity, any fun in the world. People will be afraid to do ANYTHING due to lawsuits.
It will be a truly dull place to live in.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! I think we're all missing the point here, folks! It's not the kids driving and picking up kids, but how they're driving.
/.
Two-year olds driving, yeah, that's cool, but what if they start acting out what they see on TV and driving on the left side of the road? Trying to steer the car from the passenger side? What kind of example is the media setting for our kids?
Won't someone think of the CHILDREN!
Crazy foreigners, corrupting our American youth...
Yes, I realize non-U.S. citizens read
We had the ad screening here for quite a while in NZ. It's a two year old driving a car, for pete's sake. How can they be worried about copycat crimes? Two year old's still think throwing poo is fun... which it is... but that's beside the point.
This happened in Australia, so all your talk about religion, sep of church & state, etc. is so far off base I don't know where to begin.
Anyways, here's what TFA says
So, if it was just the complaints, it is likely that nothing would have happened.
BUT, as it turns out, a literal reading of the applicable Code suggests to The Advertising Standards Board that the complaints are legitimate.
This is exactly why there are government agencies who do such investigations.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Responible parenting means taking responability for parenting your child. It does not mean having the Government step in and do it for you.
Instead of complaining about the ad, it would have been better to talk to their children about it.
I wonder if I use bold in my signature, people will notice my posts.
If you had a child who, after seeing this ad, decided to run out and take off in your SUV, and was able to get away with it, there are problems with your parenting so deep and serious that it doesn't matter how many commercials you manage to have banned; your kids are fucked.
responsible parenting has gone somewhere; in the process, it also grabbed hold of some of our liberties and took off with them.
my pet machine
As an Aussie may I be the first to say "bugger!".
Yeah we are like the states, in that we are also continually embarassed by our official representatives. They played the ad on the (after hours) news and talk shows the other night, I doubt it will stay banned for long. Besides, it doesn't really matter now since more or less all 20 million of us have paid some attention to it for free.
My hunch is all 80 of them belong to the bunch of neo-nazi's that call themselves the "Family first" party.
It's also interesting to note that this happened on the same weekend that Dick Chenney came to town. Security ground Sydney to a halt while Dick enjoyed a taxpayer funded $2M "beer with the PM", and (with not a little irony), pontificated about "violence and disruption".
"We want David Hicks back.": Our PM and AG will "do everything they can" except utter those five words since well they would...ummm....hand him over, as they have for every other nation after the US supreme court desicion was made a few years ago. This and several other issues has now made the PM's own seat in parliment very vunerable in the next election, (4% swing is required to unseat him). BTW: Please don't use the above information to infer the opposition are in any way more competent than the current crop.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
To be honest, if you've got kids that age who know how to get into your 4WD, start it up, have the strength to pull the handbrake off, and can drive stick... they should really be in a circus.
Its high time that the sterling advice to be found on The Onion were taken more seriously by parents:
_ experts_call_for
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/child_safety
Kenneth McMillan is a hero of the American People!!!
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
These commercials are incidious. Just like you dont get handsome, smart, creative and out-going from drinking Coca-Cola, but rather you may get more pimples, the sugar/caffeiene rush may boost you for a few minutes, and then over the longer run you get more dull and slow-witted.
You will be sure some kid will try this because it is shown on TV. Its not the parents job to foresee everything the child might do due to watching TV.
Rather, it is the parents duty today to bring up the kids without resorting to the TV and videogames.
Upbringing based on real-life, with real risks and real pain. Talking doesnt help when youre already living in a virtual reality. People talk about things all the time, complain about what should be done in the community. Talk is cheap. If you believe you have only one life, you better start to really live it.
http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/
That re-enforce my view that 1984 should be made required reading in every form of education. It's downright scary that it's not a government that is doing this, it's actual citizens, why do things yourself when you can convince everyone else to do it for you?
I see it as 80 people who shouldn't have been allowed to breed.
Uh, you know this is /. right? Consider the probability of the posters here having:
1) Being old enough to have had children.
2) Being unselfish enough to have had children.
3) Having had sex.
I mean, read the posts already generated about reasoning with a 2 year old.
If there is a 2-year-old out there smart enough to start up a car and drive it to the beach, I say let them go. They've earned it.
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
To be fair, the kid is driving like a maniac.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is kinky.
I know you this was meant to be funny, but it hits a little close to home. For all of you who think you have your kids under control, I offer this true story:
:-)
Our 2 1/2 year old, in the space of about five minutes (or less) managed to get the keys from the hook where we keep them (about 5' from the floor), crawl through the doggie door into the garage, chirp the car open (keyless entry), get into the car and start it up. Our first warning was the engine starting, at which point we ran into the garage to see him extremely happy, with hazard lights and windshield wipers going to beat the band.
Very unsettling.
Luckily for us, he understands and obeys us when we absolutely forbid something. (Playing with power tools, going near the road, starting the car, starting the tractor, etc)
For those of you ready to flame me for my lack of preparedness, I keep the circuit breaker for the power tools off, the keys to the car and tractor are on hooks (in different places) at least 5' from the ground, I have put up a 4' no-climb fence around our yard, and generally keep the house reasonably safe. The main problem is that the use of stools and ladders present little difficulty to this adventurous inquisitive child.
I know an awful lot of parents of well-behaved children who don't seem to have this problem. Perhaps it is YOU who can't control your children?
Regradless, you seem to be ignoring something important here. There are MANY things in the world that children could copy & end up hurting themselves. Should society ban all of them? In the car, they are much more likely to try to emulate you driving than the TV characters, so should you be banned from driving? Bugs Bunny drives-- without a seatbelt & often well over the speed limit even. Should Looney Tunes be banned? As another poster pointed out, should Peter Pan be banned since it makes children think that they can fly? Where do we stop?
No matter how carefully you try to avoid it, sooner or later your children will be exposed to a situation where they have to use their reasoning ability to make sure that they stay safe. All you are accomplishing by banning this ad is eliminating an opportunity to explain to your children why this behavior is bad and helping them to refine their critical thinking.
But if actual parenting is to much work for you, perhaps you should just put your two year old to bed before 8:30 PM? Then the entire problem goes away and no censorship is required.
> The only way to guarantee that your child won't copycat something - say,
> get into a car with a stranger because he might take you to the beach -
> is to make sure your child never sees it in the first place.
Wait! I came up with another one. How about: keeping your children under adult supervision!
I've got three kids. Oldest is 8 years old, youngest will be 4 in April. This may come as quite a shock, but all three kids have never been unsupervised in their lives! I know it is amazing, but it is true. That's how my mom did it. I'm sure my life would be easier if I would just trust the TV to take care of them, but I feel like I might have an obligation to raise my children myself.
Obviously the level of supervision required for the 8 year old differs significantly from that required for the 3 year old, but the concept is the same. You don't have to stand over them watching every thing they do. However, if a three year old can grab the keys and take the car for a spin, you aren't doing your job.
I think it works out well. So far none of them have taken off in the family car.
Other things my kids haven't managed to do:
cut themselves with sharp knives,
burn themselves on the stove top,
cut arms or legs off with power tools,
electrocute themselves,
drown in the bathtub,...
Actually, the list just goes on and on. Those are all things they could easily do if they didn't have someone watching them.