Ads up, well kind of...

Since this is the last day of what might be termed 'the holiday', that's to say Kevin has to go back to work tomorrow, I decided I would try to get up at the 'workday' time. I put work and holiday in inverted commas because these terms currently have little meaning in my life. Didn't work. Oddly, I did actually wake up at 7.45, the normal time that the alarm goes off, but then instead of getting up, getting the coffee and watching the TV5 news, I just went back to sleep again.
Back in my before life I used to wake at 6, get coffee, watch the TV5 news, talk to Kevin online, and then leave the flat at 7. There was something strange about this in that I never had the slightest problem getting out of my nest to cycle to work, whereas in an even earlier life, when I had to drive I found it almost impossible to get up.
Once awake I normally check my e-mail, read what's happening in Canada -CBC e-mail- ; what's happening in the cyberspace that is my Dutch-English study group, I love this group, and what's happening in Britain via the Guardian online. Lastly I find out what's happening or schedules to be happening in a particular household in Illinois and then send back the same info about a particular household in Richmond BC. Kevin has coined the phrase 'Ree-mailing' for this activity because everything that catches the attention of either myself or my friend has to go through the 'Ree-Janis' ping-pong back and forth.

Today Ree mentioned a TV ad about smoking that is showing or about to be shown in the US. She said it shows the view from a camera inserted down the bronchia. Before I left the UK there was a series of stop-smoking ads where as the cigarette burned, it sloughed off the disgusting sludge that silts up a smoker's veins and arteries, and bloody disgusting it looked too. The most effective ads I have seen though, were in Canada last year or the year before. The effect was of a transparent human being and you could see the damage to all of the organs in the body as smoking preogressively destroys them. Very powerful.

Advertising in general in the UK has to pass the scrutiny of the Advertising Standards Authority and they are fairly good at keeping their name and thus the ability to contact them in the public eye. Whenever an ad is pulled, the ASA makes sure the public knows so that you feel they are looking out for you. A visually catching ad for lighting, where a woman was followed down a street by a giant hand which was kept at bay by the Phillips light bulbs, was soon nixed because it showed a woman being threatened. When I arrived here I noticed a Claudia Schaefer ad that had been pulled from British TV because the product couldn't substantiate its claims. It wasn't shown for very long here so I'm fairly sure there must be an equivalent Canadian standards authority, just less visible.

I have noticed over time that a number of British TV ads have made it across the pond. There's a Sensodyne ad, and the Dove ads with the women with 'real bodies' (the buddha belly lady). Furthermore, Canadians are generally accepting of English and other British accents in advertising, so the ads are not even dubbed.

The men's fragrance 'Lynx' is called 'Axe' over here, exact same packaging just different name. But Lynx has always had rather good ads all things considered, and a litle while back the older Lynx ads started appearing to advertise Axe. The one I remember is the cavewomen one, where they used their bras as slingshots to kill the monster.

I think that the standards imposed by the ASA and the fact that they make themselves very visible and accessible, means that advertising agencies in the UK have to come up with really good stuff. OK, of course there are ads that make you want to reach through the TV set and pull someone's still beating heart out through their chest, but when it is good it is very, very good, and that is why the advertising industry has awards.

We do have some good ads on TV here, Canadian home grown TV progs, ads and films can be extremely witty, clever, well-produced and above all well acted. They can poke fun at themselves, just as the British do. I have only ever once been to Tim Horton's and yet when I am back in the UK I will think about going to Timmie's all the time, and that IS advertising working.
I would like to see far fewer ads where honest actors are made to wear stoopid hats and outfits though. I would NEVER buy Cranium on principal and when that big bottle of Listerine is gone, I'm switching brands (well, not really but you get my drift).
I'm not sure what point I'm making here. I like TV advertising, it informs me and it reflects the culture. I enjoy seeing the English language ads in French on the French Canadian channel. When I get back from Britain though, I want that lady who feels like one of santa's elves to have been put back in the grotto until next year. Most of all, I want MORE of the wonderful tongue-in-cheek 'can't get your kids to leave home, stop cooking with cheese!' ads. Oh, and the ads that I want to come cross the Atlantic are the cleaning ads with the bloke who just does the cleaning not because he's gay or doing anyone a favour, but because he just does.