There is a point in advertising where it can be so personally offensive to an individual that decency would compel you nt to publish the ad. Yes, these ads are not obscene per se and I am all for protection of First Amendment rights. But, as with abortion, just because you are allowed to do something does not mean you should.
First, the Hard Rock Cafe:
Really, there's a story behind every song? So you pick the one where the guy's kid dies a horrible and tragic death? I am sure Eric Clapton appreciates having such a graphic reminder of his son's accident. I know, it's not as much fun as the Boomtown Rat's "I Don't Like Mondays" - I mean, kids died there too but it's just too obscure for your customers to get. Plus it doesn't involve a celebrity.
Now, Reporters Without Borders:
Reporters Without Borders, like the group Doctors Without Borders, is a non-profit group, and it helps to support open and free journalism, especially in places where it has been brutally suppressed, such as Iran and Yemen and Syria. A noble cause, to be sure . . . but do you think Mariane Pearl, the widow of Daniel Pearl, would feel warm and fuzzy about this ad? You remember Dan, doncha? He's the Wall Street Reporter whose beheading at the hands of al Qaeda was videotaped and released in a catchy little short, "The Slaughter of the Spy-Journalist, the Jew Daniel Pearl!" I understand the point they are making, but I have to laugh at the irony - they want to evoke the memory of Daniel Pearl, because Islamic extremists are doing evil things to reporters, but they don't dare create a setting recognizable as the Mideast, instead uing a setting of some rich white guy's hunting lodge . . . oooh, edgy. Whassamatter, afraid some jihadist might be offended?
h/t to copyranter.
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