Smart Adse!

Ad people are sometimes too smart for their own good. Take this summer’s “Drunk Driving Counterattack” TV commercials from the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia for example. In two of these, a woman in the front passenger seat nags the drive about driving drunk. The car keeps moving and gets into a serious accident. And in the third, a guy does the same to the camera while walking down a path in the park. He sits down on a bench and a SVU runs over him. Now, these are all very clever and new. But I am not sure if they send the right message. If we do not assume that they are telling us not to drink and drive, then the logical conclusion would be, “don’t nag a drunk driver or they will crash and kill you” and “watch where you are going when you nag a drunk, because another drunk will run you over.” Instead of warning against drunk driving, they are really saying, “don’t warn drunk drivers. Say nothing if you want a chance to live. That is not a good message for ICBC. Maybe they should sell them to Anheuser-Busch and take the money to make less smart ads.