Sunday, March 27, 2011

Sounds like Ford has got a glass jaw

We read:
"In the advertising world, the gentle ribbing of competitors is almost a given. Whether its dish soap, paper towels, computer companies or automobiles, poking a little fun at your main rivals is the name of the game. But sometimes a company or its advertising agency goes a little too far, and that sometimes means the long arm of the law is dredged up and forced into service.

Such is the case with corporate rivals Nissan and Ford. Apparently, Nissan ran an advertisement in Brazil for its Tiida (known as the Versa here in the States) that may be most notable for its complete lack of any actual Nissan products. Instead, the commercial revolved solely around the Ford Focus, and specifically its base asking price, which is 3,000 reais ($1,806) higher than the Tiida.

No harm in pointing out that your product is cheaper than a competitor's, right? Well, apparently that depends on how you go about it, as Ford took exception to the use of the two rather irritating rappers and a gaggle of scantily clad bikini models drinking champagne and dancing provocatively around the Focus, explaining how they live in the lap of luxury by overcharging customers. Yeah, it's kind of funny.

Source

Mockery is clearly not a factual claim so a claim of defamation would be hard to sustain.

"Glass jaw" is a boxing term -- meaning someone who is easily knocked out

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

There was a time here in America when watching TV meant viewing a program that was occasionally interrupted by a commercial message. Now it's become viewing commercials that are occasionally interrupted by a program. And, since most TV here is pay-TV, (cable) we are actually paying to watch commercials. And it's not cheap!

We also have something called, "truth in advertising laws", which would lead one to believe commercials must tell the truth about the products they are advertising. In fact, honesty and truth are two things you will not see or hear. When hundreds-of-billions of dollars a year in profits are involved, things like truth, honesty, and laws are simply ignored and swept aside.

"Don't believe everything you read, only half of what you see, and none of what you hear..."

Anonymous said...

WORD OF THE DAY
INSENSITIVE, whine


A code word that’s inexorably tied to the mythical "right" not to be offended, it is deployed by humor challenged twerps whose most frequent utterance is a whimper.

stinky said...

It also looks like a clear parody of James O'Keefe at the 10 second mark....