Retail advertising is a wonderful thing in its ability to influence the community towards this product or that, and behaviour patterns and so on. I wonder sometimes how well the message gets across, however. There was a TV advertisement a few months ago featuring a model who used her eye socket to open a drink, after which she gazed at the viewer with a sense of self-satisfaction that was wonderful to behold. The trouble is I could never remember exactly what it was that she or the ad was promoting, and it was only with some mental gymnastics that I eventually remembered it was advertising a 4x4. The latest offering promoting the same brand of vehicles features a scorpion crawling along the floor on what turns out to be a very short journey, since the rather gorgeous model then apparently grinds our ill-fated arthropod into the floor. She is braver than I am... I once almost stepped on a scorpion and in my efforts to avoid it, I did an extremely rapid toyi-toyi - as though I was on steroids. Having said that, I wonder if this is the right message to be putting out - that you crush a living creature? Some years ago there was a bit of an outcry surrounding a TV advertisement featuring sheep and goats sliding down a board. I have not seen any criticism of the arthropod's apparent annihilation yet, and if there hasn't been, I wonder if there will be...?


Rod Baker, Content Manager: Send your news to: retailnews@bizcommunity.com; or visit https://www.bizcommunity.com.