FURY OVER CROC BITE BEER ADS -

Daily Mirror - UK ^ | July 28, 2003 | Rod Chayton

[UnklGene]

FURY OVER CROC BITE BEER ADS Jul 28 2003

By Rod Chaytor

AUSSIE beer giant Fosters has upset viewers with their latest TV ad showing a crocodile biting the head off a bungee jumper.

Family groups are in uproar over the 30 second clip - shot in the form of a home movie - which shows a man leap off a crane into a river. As he skims the top of the water, a croc lunges at him.

The hand-held camera then pans in for a close up, showing the victim's headless corpse dangling lifelessly on the bungee rope. Laughing, the cameraman jokes "Crikey! that's got to hurt" before the ad finishes with the slogan "Don't lose your head".

The Independent Television Commission has had 87 complaints since it was first aired on July 14.

Fosters said the ad was designed to promote a new system which gives drinkers a constant head on their pint. A spokesman said: "Our aim is to use Foster's 'No worries' Aussie-style humour."

[UnklGene]

"No worries with Foster, mate!"

[RedBloodedAmerican]

See, if they had better writers, they would have known using a Frenchman for a bungee jumper would have drawn no complaints. They're good croc snacks, too! Yellow on the outside, taste like chicken!

[FreedomCalls]

Anybody got a link?

[Chad Fairbanks]

"Fosters - The Beer with bite" or "Fosters - The Beer with a good head"

[Roscoe Karns]

Note to self: buy case of Fosters tomorrow.

[Stew Padasso]

I gotta tell you that my 3 year old was watching daytime sports on a weekend and this ad came on. It was very angering. I don't think they should be banned from showing it, however how about a little respect for parents. I am getting steamed just thinking about it.

[livius]

Actually, even though I don't watch TV very much, in the few minutes a day on average that I watch it, I've seen a ton of ads like this that are pretty gruesome (Mountain Dew ads, etc), so it's obviously the latest "thing."

Personally, I don't mind them if they're sort of cartoonish (remember how violent cartoons were?).

But I don't particularly care for them when they look like a really graphic accident report, and in fact I end up with a rather negative feeling about the product and the people who drink it.

This is something for advertisers to bear in mind. I don't drink Fosters, but previously, I simply didn't drink it - now I have a vaguely negative feeling about it, so I probably wouldn't even buy it to have on hand for parties (which I used to do).

[Consort]

[Calpernia]

bump!

[Roscoe Karns]

burp!

[Roscoe Karns]

I haven't seen the ad.Is it really that gruesome?

[Stew Padasso]

I've seen it once and could not believe it, I was rushing for the remote. It was a goofy Faces Of Death. My kid was asking all kinds of questions. Also, the beer ad where the guy gets his head knocked off by Evander Holyfield (very funny) but not for kids.

[CFC__VRWC]

I'm reminded of the Dodge Ram truck ad that aired during the Super Bowl, where the guy hocks a wad of chewed-up beef jerky onto the windshield and the camera lingers, lovingly catching the jerky oozing down the glass. Like this spot described here, just disgusting.

Who in God's name are these ad agencies hiring, that think this kind of trash will make people want to rush out and buy stuff?

[Iconoclast2]

The collapse of all standards, morals, principals and values manifests itself in many ways.

[Stew Padasso]

It wouldn't be so bad if they would stop airing these on the weekends during daytime sporting events. It is pathetic.

I agree, who are these people. They must not have children or they just don't GAS.

[Oztrich Boy]

I haven't seen the ad.Is it really that gruesome?

link to ad.

[Charles H. (The_r0nin)]

Fosters: Australian for p*ss!

[L.N. Smithee]

I gotta tell you that my 3 year old was watching daytime sports on a weekend and this ad came on. It was very angering. I don't think they should be banned from showing it, however how about a little respect for parents. I am getting steamed just thinking about it.

I haven't seen the Foster's one, but I have seen the Miller Lite ad with the guy that, in another of Miller Lite's trademark dream sequences, gets his head knocked off by Evander Holyfield. Unlike the bungee jumper, this guy's head keeps talking ("Is that all you got?")

It helps a little bit that the guy wasn't killed by being beheaded, since you can explain that it's just a joke. You can't do that when a guy is killed.

Even though I don't have kids, I vividly remember what upset me when I was very young, and always look at gruesome stuff that is broadcast when and where children could likely see it through the eyes of my younger self. I cringe to think of what nightmares would have resulted from my seeing those unappetizing Mike's Hard Lemonade spots when I was six or seven, especially the one with the guy growing a slimy -- and lecherous -- second head on his shoulder (those ads have been recently retired).

I have always enjoyed the Foster's commercials. They were very clever before, but I guess they feel like they have to do something to cut through the buxom babes bouncing through the rest of the beer commercials. The new Amstel Light fifteen-second spots are my current favorite. They involve how to make refrigerator space for the new larger case. I won't spoil the surprise for you.

Remember that movie called Beer about a naughty marketing campaign ("Whip out your Norbecker!")? Talk about life imitating art!

[lawdude]

""Fosters - The Beer with bite" or "Fosters - The Beer with a good head""

I like the beer ad (don't remember the brand) where the two pretty women are chatting about the one's ex-. Scene shifts to th guy with his new flame and as he is talking, his head gets smaller and smaller.

I gotta believe it is subtley precipitated by his request to the new gal for a "little head"!


Watch what you ask for as you may get it!