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[Chris_H]

I am SOOOOOO cynical that I would not be surprised if the M&S marketing department instigated the complaints, and the report to the BBC and....

It's viral advertising on the back of expensive mainstream, traditional, tv advertising.  Very effective if you can get it to work - and it's starting already.

As for sexist?  I guess the complaint is that it does not follow the modern line of undermining men to promote women;  which clearly isn't sexist itself.

PS. I do dislike the presumption that viewers will know and enjoy the character(s) though.  Many tv quiz shows now ask obscure questions about soaps that I am proud to say I could not begin to answer.  That may mean that my IQ is low in today's world but I can live with that.

[kevinminton]

But you could argue the ad does "undermine men" because it reinforces the portrayal of the Sweeney/Monkfish character as a sad loser on his own in pub full of men who's only thought of Xmas is underwear adverts on the TV. But I thought that was the joke about his character. (It is a joke, isn't it?)

K

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

Doesn`t offend me......

.......just whom are these sad, self-appointed guardians of the 'public morality' anyway?

Mary Whitehouse.........she lives on... .....teaching all us heathens....how to lead ......a better life. .....for our own good...
It is such a shame .....that this wonderful lady is no longer about....to teach us all the error of our ways....

[Selseybill]

Goes to prove that there are some proper miserable b'stards about.

I've about had enough of all this do-gooder, politically-correct, mind-what-you-think-let-alone-say, don't fly the flag lest it offends 'dangle berries' - I really have!!

Couldnt have said it better myself 

[jerry]

Brings to mind Clarkson's comment on the Sloggi ad hoarding that was forced to be pulled because of its close proximity to a mosque. Out of all the hundreds, probably thousands of people ,who had seen it , it took only a handfull of complaints for the ASA to get it removed. Clarkson mused that it was just as well that we had a leader (at the time) in Tony Blair who had the guts to ignore complaints from the public and push on regardless with what he felt was right-the case in point being the thousands of people who petitioned him against becoming embroiled in Iraq

[Dishevelled Den]

Two points.

The people who made the ad play the stereotyping card cleverly - so the ad is ambiguous as to whether it lazily trades on the stereotypes put in the public domain by Ab. Fab and Life on Mars (is this the right prog?); or whether it actually enters into and reinforces the attitudes the characters portray. I expect the ad people even wrote prepared their response to the (predictable) complaints to ASA. The woman at the end says (false naive) "moi?" (Miss Piggy springs to mind!). M&S are "Surprised"! Who us? Nous? Surely not ....
Don't be drawn in to an ad campaign that leaks off the TV onto the news, forums etc.

second point. Some people thought the ad was sexist & complained to ASA. If we consider them to be "self-appointed" "miserable idiots" "self appointed moral guardians" then aren't we setting out to suppress their freedom of thought, just like we accuse them of trying to suppress ours? They complain, ASA makes a decision. Lots of complaints are not upheld. ASA can't really do much anyway. Let them complain, I say. They may one day be the little boy who says "the emperor's got no clothes".

Kevin (middle class. past middle age)

two postscripts. 1: I remember now Stephen Fry is in the ad, talking about mince. (discuss stereotyping etc)
2: The M&S ad people prob made the complaints to ASA.

Stephen Fry is in the ad, talking about mince.

 More like mincing surely

 
The M&S ad people prob made the complaints to ASA

That's nearer the mark K