By Calvin Palmer
A soft drink ad aired in the UK has had TV viewers, a children’s charity and equal rights groups all fizzing with anger.
The TV ad for Orangina features gyrating hips, bottles erupting from between thighs and shooting the effervescent liquid over bikini-clad breasts, as well as other sexual imagery.
Before you all start racing to find it on You Tube, the characters in this 60-second ad are all anthropomorphized furry animals, zebras, gazelles and other exotic creatures.
According to The Independent newspaper, Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has received 147 complaints since the ad was first broadcast at the beginning of August.
Kidscape, the children’s charity, is among those complaining. Director Claude Knights said, “Orangina is a drink that is mainly aimed at children and young people but this new ad places the product in a very sexualized and provocative context.
“The almost sinister portrayal of animals in an animation style filled with sexual innuendo leads to very mixed and confused messages.”
Believe it or not Claude Knights is a woman. Surely with a name like that she is equally guilty of sending out a mixed and confused message to children. I sense she is perhaps just using children as the excuse to justify her own dislike of the ad.
According to TalkingRetail.com, soft drinks firm AG Barr, which produces Orangina under license from Dr Pepper Snapple Group, markets it as an adult drink. I think they would know better than Ms. Knights at whom the drink is targeted.
Equal rights groups are also incensed by the ad, claiming that it is sexist in its depiction of scantily-clad female animals pandering, or should that be ‘panda-ring,’ to the male animals.
A spokesperson for the ASA said, “We are looking at the complaints and haven’t made a decision about whether or not to investigate yet. This is a question of taste and decency.”
The ad is the work of the Paris agency FFL and is themed on the concept of “pulpeuse,” which in French means not only “containing pulp,” as the drink does, but also “sexy” or “voluptuous.” It was directed by Psyop, a creative group based in New York, and features extensive use of computer-generated imagery (CGI) alongside traditional cinematographic techniques. The ad took four months to produce between agencies in London and France.
FFL’s executive creative directors Fred and Farid said, “Around 20 art directors created the animals and then we asked Psyop to recreate everything in CGI and make these animals come alive.”
“We have never made a campaign that post tested so well,” they added. “People love it.”
That sentiment was echoed by Adrian Troy, the head of marketing at AG Barr. “The ad has enjoyed a phenomenal response in France where Orangina is famous for its iconic advertising,” he said.
But since the complaints have poured in, the response from both AG Barr and Dr Pepper Snapple Group has been rather flat. Both firms have been unavailable for comment.
