Religion and Ads

Again high-grading content from earlier blogs: originally published September 14, 2004

Well, I’m currently writing copy for a series of ads for a poker site, which will appear in Maxim amongst other men’s magazines (editor’s note: they didn’t appear in Maxim, but PokerPlayer magazine) – The process, due to time constraints, led to me using classical art and woodblock prints within the public domain rather than any custom illustration. The intention being to get across the class factor of this particular site – the owners wish to market it as the alternative to all the crass gambling sites which currently glut the internet. Anyway, I ran into trouble with some copy which referenced the Bible, suggesting that Adam had been tempted by poker rather than an apple. Now, what surprised me is that while everyone who viewed the concept felt it was by far and away the strongest, in this post-911 world, they were hesitant to use such an ad. I can only suggest that the ad was far from offensive, and that I suspect you are never going to get the kind of people who’d be offended by such an ad to play poker on the web in the first place. But what scares me is that I understand their concern, I mean they are a poker site and promoting gambling is a touchy subject in and of itself. The problem for me being: have we come to a point where we can’t poke a little harmless fun at something which is an established, respected trope in our society? The Bible, the military complex (never touch soldiers, that’s going to get you in to hella trouble and rightly so), the government? I guess I’m just curious where the line is drawn. I mean I personally find the truly genius (although I’ve been told ineffective) I AM CANADIAN ads to be slightly offensive in their pandering to manufactured Canadian nationalism. I certainly don’t need a beer ad to tell me what it is to be proud of this country.

Now I’m not really upset about any of this at all. But… it is part of understanding the climate in our business, and I think it may be indicative of a current double-standard, pandering to certain vocal groups and ignoring the concerns of others (the ads will run across the US as well as Canada).

I’ll give you an example, I’m quite sure you could get away with an ad which referenced prison rape (if indirectly); a joke about dropping the soap in the shower or whatnot. But suggest the Bible’s not established fact and you run into a hornet’s nest. My argument would be that the institutionalization of prison rape in our culture should be of far greater importance than literal interpretations of one of our great religious works. But that’s just me, and the market doesn’t reflect that. So in the end I guess I’m just analyzing the compromise of values that sometimes insidiously creeps into the realm of advertising. It’s at this point you realize you have become part of the machine, and I’ve got to admit, it’s one of the reasons advertising and design is so fascinating for me. Communication with intent, but also the mollycoddling of specific points of view to fit a product’s marketing.

Incidentally, in a related aside, M.C. Escher is not in the public domain. Craptown.