Is Nothing Sacred?
MTV’s use of shock ads trivializes the events of 9/11
Marlo Cambell
Television commercials exist to sell us stuff.
It’s a simple concept that works — provided someone
watches. It’s no easy task to capture our attention for
30 seconds these days, when even conservative studies estimate
that the average American is exposed to 245 commercial messages
every day.
Ads need to stand out, to make us look. Some use beautiful women;
others try to make us laugh. And then there are shock ads like
the current television commercial for MTV Canada.
Has anyone seen it? It features men and women falling from the
sky.
It’s done realistically. They land heavily, on pavement,
on cars. There’s so many of them that it looks like it’s
snowing.
Most lie where they land, still alive, groaning. One guy tries
to pull himself up with his arms. Inexplicably, several seem completely
unharmed, jumping up and running off — presumably to watch
some MTV Canada videos.
What makes the commercial so unnerving is that it’s meant
to be funny.
The soundtrack is an upbeat swing song with the lyric “falling
in love with you.” (Ooh, clever.)
People dodge and weave their way through the streets, laughing
and having fun as hundreds of bodies plummet to the ground around
them. A woman grabs one of the human projectiles and kisses him
before they scamper off into the sunset, holding hands.
I generally don’t begrudge the use of shock tactics —
anti-smoking ads and don’t-drink-and-drive public-service
announcements have been grossing us out for years. It’s
an effective way of making a point.
But this commercial is especially disturbing because it capitalizes
on the events of 9/11.
John Doe Amsterdam, the agency that produced the ad, must have
realized the obvious parallel. In the final scene, an endless
stream of bodies falls against the backdrop of a downtown skyline
complete with high-rise buildings. The tag line reads, “MTV
is in the air.”
It’s disconcerting, intentional and offensive. I remember
watching news reports of real people holding hands as they jumped
to their deaths. Call me a bleeding heart, but the sight of people
crashing to the ground doesn’t crack me up five years later.
And, if evoking a visceral reaction is the goal, why not show
what really happens when a human body hits the pavement? Make
no mistake, it’s significantly messier than the commercial
implies.
I guess that would be crossing the line. Realism is OK, so long
as it’s sanitized. Turn up the goofy music, get rid of the
gore, and violent imagery becomes a joke.
Ha ha.
Most news stations chose not to show footage of people jumping
from the World Trade Centre. This ad (and MTV Canada) mimics the
horror of that day for laughs.
True, the spot did its job. It stuck in my mind, much like the
awful images from a certain Tuesday morning back in 2001.
But I don’t think I’ll be watching MTV Canada anytime
soon. Advertisers can trot out as many tricks as they’d
like. Shock may get us to watch, but at the end of the day the
choice to buy is still ours. |
Uptown
Magazine - Winnipeg's Online Source for Arts, Entertainment & News
